Persona: Reverse Rebirth
by The Messenger Crow
Summary: With the truth lost to the passage of time, darkness covers the world. Japan is ruled by Shadows. The masses live in ignorance. And soon the rest of the world will follow. As humanity falls into a universal dystopia, the only ones with the power to stop it have all fallen even further. But even then, with little chance for survival, the four promised heroes may still appear...
1. I: The Cruel Angel's Thesis

_**Author's Note**_

Welcome to this little test project of mine, which will henceforth be abbreviated as _Reverse Rebirth _so I don't need to say the entire thing. This first bit here is basically going to be an Author's Note, but the second chapter that's going up will kick off the story.

About… A year ago, I think? I threw together a one-shot in the Persona section and said that if it gained enough attention that I'd extend it. It didn't. So I'm not. If by some miracle you've read that one and made your way here, this isn't that… Also, the grammar is actually proof read this time. So hooray for that.

This fic is essentially a continuation of a bad ending, not only for Persona 4, but for the entire Persona continuity up to this point, with a little straight up SMT added for extra mythopoetic undertones, hence why it's in this section to begin with (although based on traffic this fic might jump sections anyhow). _Reverse Rebirth _is, if the summary didn't give it away, set in a dystopian society, where the Shadows essentially rule everything. And the Persona users, at least those that are still around, have to deal with not only that but with their own gradually decaying personalities. Already we have the makings of an SMT plotline here, but things will get more apparent as time goes on.

Going into this – just be aware that there's all kinds of terrible stuff going on here… Most of it is implied, some of it is right out stated, but most of the particularly gruesome material is never shown… Most. Just be aware of that as you read – oh, and if you're crazy about various ships, let it be known that I'm going to sink and patch up quite a few of them as I go along. There's all kinds of absurd pairing stuff going on for not so absurd reasons too. And you'll get some of that as early as the first chapter of the story.

Oh, and **there are no OCs in this fic. **Remember that. It's _very _important for later.

Well, without any further delay, enjoy the first of many bits of cryptic dialogue _Reverse Rebirth _has to offer.

* * *

_**Persona: Reverse Rebirth of the (True) Goddess  
**__**Part I of IV  
**_"_**The Cruel Angel's Thesis"**_

_As the morning comes, the evening stays_

_You are night, and I am day._

_A reflection of my broken mind_

_A fate that I had left behind._

_You are lacking, you are flawed_

_A fleeting phantom, wrapped in gauze._

_Yet you are me, and I am you._

_And if it's true, _

_Then what am I, without you?_

_ ~Raidou Kuzunoha XVII_


	2. Encore

_**1.1 Encore**_

_11:30 PM, Shibuya, Tokyo  
__December 31__st__, 2013_

There was once a time, mere years ago, when there was such a thing as aspiration. Hope. Self-esteem. Confidence. Desire. There was once a time when such words held meaning and such concepts were adhered to by all of humanity, even if not directly. When individuality was expressed by all people, no matter how different from one another, and intellect and reason held their own ground.

There was a time when such a reality was more than a simple dream. It was the way the world worked, and it was the way humanity was allowed to exist. But as the world is now – it is nothing but. A simple dream lost to the annals of time, dreamt by none, simply because there are none that could recall it.

With the passage of time, the world began to succumb to its own folly. Those with power overrode those without; the lines between fact and opinion were blurred by those with the power to enforce the truth, freedom and individuality were suppressed by security and order, and as time marched on the world began to collectively form a singular, unchanging entity that existed purely to exist.

At the time, there were those who warned the public of this inevitable future. But they were all dismissed as fools. And so humanity continued to accelerate. It continued to advance and create, searching for nothing more than to become more powerful, all to suppress those that thought differently.

Humanity tore itself apart from the inside out. The public was brainwashed, forced to accept the word of those above them or face annihilation. And on the true day of Armageddon, not a single person was even aware of it.

Humanity sought power. Humanity found power within itself. And so humanity gave into its own shadow. Humanity feared its shadow, and those with the power to control the darkness controlled humanity with fear.

Such is this world – a world ruled by Shadows.

The change was rapid. There was no sign of why, and in the aftermath there were few who even cared. The Shadows overran the world, and those who defied them were wiped out in a matter of moments. Humanity began to corrode, and to preserve the very nature of those they fed off of, the Shadows assimilated themselves into human society. They simply sat there, lying in wait to prey on those that defied their absolute order.

Right and wrong. Acceptable and unacceptable. All maintained and controlled – and humanity is none the wiser.

There are people who are believed to be lawless, but there is no crime. There are hobbies and interests, but there is no deviation. There are flexible daily routines, but there is no freedom. There are humans, but there is no humanity.

It is here, in such a world, that our story begins.

In truth, the prefecture of Tokyo that was once known as Shibuya is now nothing of the sort. Government propaganda, censorship and totalitarian control had made short work of it long ago. But as it stands, life in Shibuya still marches on, even though 'life' isn't the best term to describe it. The public continues its day by day interaction, conditioned into a set of politically accepted norms. Their lives are normal, as they have been normal for years, even though such a massive change has occurred. There is no life to speak of, yet there is no shortage of breathing creatures that roam the streets in mass.

But, as is common to any perfect society, this lack of meaning isn't as uniform as the rulers intended.

Even now, there are mere whispers.

Whispers of that world that once was, but will never be again.

Whispers that bring us to Shibuya, thirty minutes before the start of a new year, in the dead of night.

Standing there, in the middle of a dimly lit alleyway, surrounded by the dark haze she had seen one time too many, was Naoto Shirogane, staring into the darkness that surrounded her, with no fear – or anything else reflected in her features, for that matter. She simply stood there, waiting for the moment they would charge – for the moment they would attempt to erase her, a stain upon their perfect world.

Minutes passed, but eventually a single shadow leapt from the darkness and lunged at her. All too suddenly, the beast was met with a bullet to the head, as in one fluid motion not only had it missed its mark entirely, but its target had swiftly positioned herself for the first and final blow.

Then they came for her – one after the other. And one by one they all met the same fate as she nimbly avoided each and every single one of them, even having room to reload her pistol in between. The Shadows expressed nothing but hatred. She, on the other hand, expressed nothing at all.

She stands there as more seem to rise from the darkness - this time in far greater numbers. She was already outnumbered, but with this many – if she didn't pull out, she would probably be killed. Her brain tells her to run – and so she runs. She escapes from the alleyway and makes her way down the street, firing another bullet and impairing yet another Shadow. But they were gaining speed, and there were no easy shortcuts through the buildings. They would continue to chase her, no matter how far she ran.

But she had to end this fight here and now. Of course, there was one other way. It would be painful, but it would get the job done. And even though it wouldn't ever truly amount to anything, it would get the job done.

She rolls into another alleyway, narrowly avoiding a spell cast by one of the higher ranking Shadows. She decides that the moment they appeared she would make her move –

But there was already a Shadow in the alleyway with her, standing behind her.

Instead of outright killing her it grabs her, apparently determined to take her alive. Of course, there was only one thing that would happen to her afterward – dying outright would've seemed like an honor by comparison.

She grunts as she fires off a round, apparently hoping to hit the Shadow's foot or some similar appendage. But it was to no avail.

And in that moment the Shadows that had been chasing her file into the alleyway, charging towards her with the intent to kill. The Shadow holding her apparently tries to relay a command to stop, but in that moment of confusion Naoto made a last ditch effort.

With a swift kick she manages to nail the Shadow in the gut, causing it to release her. Taking a single shot, the Shadow kneels over, giving her the opening she needs.

With a hoarse cry that served as her voice, she called to him. "…Yamato Takeru…!"

She held her breath. Her chest tightens and her entire body, save for her arms, went completely numb. Her open palm seemed to smolder, with the stinging feeling common to burning becoming more and more intense by the second. Her entire body seemed to spasm as, with a large blast of blue flame, Yamato Takeru appeared in the air above her. Gasping for air she staggers backward as her Persona turns and leaps towards the beast standing behind her, piercing through its stomach with its katana.

The Shadows in front of her leap towards her, attempting to crush her under their combined weight. She was only able to shoot down one of them while the others all made their mark. She struggled to break free, but she was unable to do much as far as fighting back was concerned.

But just before her vision swam, a small discharge went off in the back of her head.

In the next moment, Yamato Takeru writhes in pain, gripping its head and dropping the katana to its side. And in the next moment its head bursts open from the inside. And squeezing out through the small opening was a very different, far more massive Persona, this one with a skull for a head, clad in black and holding a much longer katana than the one that had now seemingly faded out of existence. The mere wrapping that was Yamato Takeru's body falls to the floor as this new monstrosity plunges downward, making impact with the ground, sword first.

And there was a dark pentagram of some sort that painted itself across the ground. In a moment, a dark cloud of some sort of smoke spat out from the lines that formed it.

"…Ma…Mu…Doon…" Her voice hissed as her entire body gave way under the force of the Shadows. But in the next moment they were all gone – they simply vanished altogether. She falls o her knees, her entire body still shaking. Standing behind her was the monstrous Persona. Without so much as a sound it lifts its katana over its head. With a haughty laugh, it appears prepared to swing down upon its master.

While gasping heavily for air and her hand shaking violently, she reaches into her coat pocket, fumbling around while her state of shock quickly sends her into a state of almost cardiac arrest. Eventually she finds it – the small bottle she was all too familiar with.

Without another thought she opens the bottle, accidentally dumps the entirety of its contents onto her hand, and swallows several of them. The rest fall from her shaky hand and roll off onto the ground.

The Persona standing behind her stops mid-swing and disappears entirely. In its place is Yamato Takeru, who sinks to the floor and fades away.

With an exasperated gasp she scrambles to find the pills that fell, quickly returning them to the bottle with much effort, crawling frantically around the dark alleyway. She leans against the nearby wall and crumples to the floor entirely. She sighs, but not with relief. She sighs with disdain and self hatred.

Her body has calmed down and her vision has returned to normal, but she still doesn't move. She simply lies there, staring blankly across the alleyway, perhaps focusing somewhat on the glaring street light far off in the distance.

She realizes that she's still holding on to her pistol. She wasn't sure how long it had been practically glued to her left hand, but she'd only just noticed she still had her finger on the trigger. She was breaking the most basic rule of firearms – never place your finger on the trigger until you're ready to shoot. Instead of simply doing so, she drops the gun entirely, leaning her head back against the wall and staring at the darkened sky.

And there I was, staring down at her from the rooftop above. I doubted she could see me – even if she did, I doubted she'd even know what she was looking at. As for why I was even there – I was simply curious. Curious to see what had become of one of the last free men – or in her case, one of the last free women.

I hadn't been surprised. But it was somewhat disheartening to know that the only shred of chaos left in the world had little more influence than a shot animal, left to die on the side of the road. And it wasn't just Naoto Shirogane. The entire lot of them – they all became something quite similar. Although her case is, relatively speaking, particularly worse than those of the others.

Naoto Shirogane is essentially a warm body. She has nothing left to contribute to the world around her. She is simply living on to protect the last shred of dignity and sanity she still possessed. With no true goal in sight, she would stalk the streets in the dead of night, slaughtering Shadows purely for the sake of slaughtering Shadows. And every night she would wander aimlessly like this, and every night she would return home, barely conscious and drugged out of her mind.

She was lost, in more ways than one. There was little argument, however, that anyone else that went through the fate she was dealt would turn out any different.

No one knows for certain when the Shadows took over. There are few that even acknowledge that reality as it is. But with absolute certainty, I can confirm that the Shadows' rise to power was inevitable the moment a very particular town in the countryside was erased from existence.

Inaba was a very ordinary town, save for the fact that a goddess of ages past had set up shop there, determined to exercise her hatred for mankind by essentially taking its most defining flaw and blowing it far out of proportion. In the end, the goddess was victorious to some degree, although in the end the goddess was never the threat to begin with.

Inaba was erased from the face of the earth in an event that only Naoto Shirogane knows the details of. It's unfortunate, in this instance, that she knows nothing more about Inaba than a handful of names – names of people she may or may not have known very well.

In the end, every detail of the town, be it those that lived there or the very existence of such a place, was erased from history – and those who cared enough to still remember afterward went mad over a very long period of time, with their memory slowly fading in an excruciating manner.

In the end, Shirogane is the only one who knows the truth. She was the only one who cared enough about the reality she once knew to remember it ever so vividly, even after it no longer existed. That was why now, having forgotten even the name of that town she so cared about, she was unable to tell what was the truth and what was just a left over chunk of a twisted memory. Simply put, she gradually forgot that she was forgetting – but the mental trauma left behind would never leave her. She began wondering if Inaba was even real to begin with. But the more she thought, the more convoluted her thoughts became.

In the end, she could never decide what was real and what was fake. All she knew was that the Shadows were her enemies. And so she would kill them. So she went on living, struggling to remember that her memory was slipping away, all so she could recover the truth – and her desire for that truth. And her genocide was how she managed to do so – how she managed to stay sane, at any rate, for what little good it seemed to do.

I continued to stare down at her, waiting for even a small sign that she was even still alive. Eventually, only moments before my boredom peaks and I give it up altogether, she stands and walks off down the street, having apparently killed enough for that evening. She absent mindedly heads towards what served as her home. I follow her to an apartment complex, one of a great many that built Shibuya's residential district. Having been a detective at one point, one would assume that she would've at least had enough money to live in something even a bit more extravagant, but this was where Shirogane had wandered off to.

I am only able to peer through an open window, but I see the interior of that which serves as her home.

The walls, the ceiling and the floor were all a dull shade of red. It was almost mahogany but a tad darker. The furniture scattered about – and scattered is a rather accurate way to describe the nonsensical placement of furniture in that room – was similarly shaded, although somewhat brighter. It was a plain and uninteresting apartment, although its residents were worth checking up on at the very least.

She stumbles through the door after making a serious effort to find her keys. Shutting the door behind her, she stumbles into the nearest chair, falling backward and seemingly passing out.

"Ah shit… I'd say 'welcome back' or something like that, provided you could even hear me… You dumbass, where the hell were you this time?" A low voice speaks in a very irritated sort of tone. I have a hard time placing the name of the voice's owner, but I'd most definitely heard it before.

"Between the… the station and… I'm not sure." She responded somewhat dully. It seemed she was still somewhat aware of her surroundings, although only somewhat. "They came from the alleys this time… I had to use the pills."

"You think I can't tell? Don't you at least remember what we told you about those pills?"

"…"

"You keep taking those like that –"

"I'll end up like you. Even though you're not going to die unless you stop taking them."

"You're acting like it's not a big deal. You know the feeling. You know what kind of crap those things fill your head with."

"And I'll keep taking them as necessary. Shadows don't kill themselves, unless there's a new breed I'm unaware of."

The man sighs. "There's never any reasoning with you, is there?" He walks off as Naoto continues to stare at the ceiling in a daze.

"Aragaki-kun..." She murmurs. "Just stop pretending."

"Who's pretending now?"

"You know as well as I do… If I don't keep fighting them, they'll kill me."

"I know… But you're just gonna keep on going at this rate."

"Isn't that just what has to happen?"

But he didn't have a response to that.

I now recall the man's name. He was Shinjiro Aragaki, a Persona user who narrowly escaped death with credit to a certain other Persona user who unfortunately is no longer with us… Or perhaps fortunately, given the task he's been forced with.

Aragaki was once a ticking time bomb – his death was ever so close at hand, given the uncontrollable nature of his Persona. For many years he forced himself to suppress his power with the very same drugs that Shirogane uses to force her own. But in a twist of fate, his life was spared. But even then, his life always hangs in the balance – as long as he took the drugs, he would survive.

The drugs in question were psychological suppressants of a very potent variety – the consumer is rendered almost vegetative if they are taken in absurd quantities. The number Shirogane had taken only about an hour prior, while a dosage she was fairly used to, was almost on the borderline, and if she were to continue taking them in such a manner she'd likely start to suffer permanent damage from them.

The evening continues. At one point Shirogane strips the bulk of her clothing, leaving on only light undergarments and her coat as she attempts to head off to sleep on the sofa. I can't confirm if she even has a room or not, but it seemed that she was fine with where she was. At some point, however –

"Aragaki-kun…" She speaks hoarsely. The man in question is standing only a few feet away.

"What now?" He questions with a complete lack of interest.

"You're… No different… From me… So…" She speaks. Her voice is slurred and her eyes are mostly shut.

"Shit… How many of those damned things did you take?!" He almost shouts at her.

"I…can't…" She starts reaching around as if she's suddenly lost her eyesight.

Eventually Shinjiro moves close enough to her that she can verify his whereabouts through touch. And in another moment, she throws her arms around his neck and pulls him into a furious kiss, one filled with nothing, not even desire. It's simply a reaction. And nothing more.

With her psychological state suppressed, this was all that was left of Naoto Shirogane. Her body acts on impulse – but unlike a normal human body, this human body acts irregularly. All it amounts to is another confused reaction to an impulse she can't remember. She searches desperately for a feeling. A feeling long lost to her that her mind can't recall. There was simply too much trauma and forgotten memory involved for it to ever truly register. It was a feeling that only her body could recall, but that her mind would never be able to comprehend ever again.

During that year, that time she spent in Inaba –

Her life changed. She had become willing to accept herself as a woman – for who she was. And she owed it all to one person. A person she loved ever so desperately. A person she never wanted to let go.

A person that she could no longer remember anything about. That person's name, their face – everything about them is lost to her.

And now, she simply can't remember _why _she accepted herself in the first place. And so this is all that remains – an echo of love that she can no longer control.

I turn to leave. Not wishing to view this mockery of human relationship play out any further, I leave the rooftop across from that apartment. I head off into the night, traveling along the rooftops of Shibuya, heading to my next destination.

How pitiful these soulless creatures are. At one point I believed they had potential.

But despite how hopeless their existences are, they continue to live on.

That is why – that is why I have to be sure…

Otherwise…

* * *

_2:34 AM, Club Escapade, Tatsumi Port Island  
__January 1__st__, 2014_

It's strange. It's strange how such an insignificant sign of an insignificant strand of chaos could lead me to something far bigger. It's somewhat ironic that I'd find these two here, of all places – this was a place where both of their pasts intertwined for very different reasons. But in the end their futures would bring them back.

Club Escapade was relatively full as usual. The dance floor was more of a stage than anything else, with the band playing jazz and nothing but, night after night. The vibrant lights were replaced with dim blue lights that shone rather dully on the floor beneath them. The bartenders served either soft drinks or plain water. Of course, despite all of it, the people still came in droves.

It was here, amongst the crowd that these two met – the one, a man who has garnered much respect for service to the public. The other? An essentially hired killer. In the far corner they met to discuss things – things that no one else had any business knowing anything about. Being who I am, I violated this basic right of private conversation.

"I'm surprised you came," the elder man spoke, clearing his throat. This man was named Kurosawa – he was an officer of the law, as he still was. You can imagine what sort of life such a man must live.

The man sitting opposite him only grunted in response. This man was… Well, for the time being, I shall keep it a secret.

"I see you're as… uncooperative as ever. I hope this doesn't persist."

"… What, are you expecting me to be all smiles?"

"Of course not, but… Well, that's beside the point. What we're here to discuss has to do with… various circumstances. I'm sure you'll understand after we begin."

"Just get it over with. What is it you want?" The man spoke with a certain degree of malice in his voice. Clearly he wanted nothing to do with Kurosawa – but he _was _willing to hear him out, likely because he felt that refusing him would be more of a hassle.

"I'm going to ask you a few questions."

"About the Organization?"

"…Rather obviously."

"I don't know how many times I need to say it. We broke up three years ago. And we aren't planning anything."

"We have evidence –"

"You can shove your evidence up your ass. I haven't even spoken to any of them since then."

"And you're sure of this?"

"Of course."

"Then it's no wonder you aren't aware."

The other man grew tense. Kurosawa apparently knew something that he didn't.

"And what might that be?"

"There's been some indication of… resistance to our law enforcement. Multiple times, we've had anomalies in the system, and we're fairly sure that your former leader is involved somehow. We've had outbreaks in Shibuya, Ikebukuro, Akihabara and Nagano. Too concentrated and too regular to be sporadic attacks. But more importantly – not a single one of them has been caught, despite our efforts."

"Someone's going around, stomping Shadows, and the fingers all point right to her, huh…? Sounds about right. So what's it you want from me?"

"…You aren't going to like what I have to say. Just be aware."

"Well, let's hear it."

"…We want you to find them. Find the Persona users. Kill them. And on top of that, search for Mitsuru Kirijo. Find out what happened to her and why she suddenly vanished… Do as we ask, and there won't be any trouble."

The other man almost laughed. "And _why _would I _ever _want to do a thing like that?"

"You know as well as I do that the fact that we're letting you wander around –"

"You want to use my life as payment? No thanks. I might be a coward, but I'm not _that _much of a coward."

"You're making a mistake here…"

The man shook his head. "You've got nothing. You can kill me right here and right now if you want to. I'm not going for it."

"…I didn't want to have to resort to this, but it seems like there's little choice, now, is there?" Kurosawa reached into his coat pocket and pulled out what seemed to be some sort of a photograph. The contents – well, the contents will have to remain a secret as well, I'm afraid.

"…Now tell me. When was this photo taken?" Kurosawa questioned the man, already knowing the answer.

In a single moment the man's entire demeanor made a complete turn – he sat up straight, snatched the photograph, and simply stared at it. His hand started to tremble.

"…Thursday night… At the apartment…"

"I take it you already know the implications of this picture."

"…So if I… If I don't do what you…"

"That's about the gist of it… Although whatever you're imagining – the reality is far worse."

"…You're a bastard."

"I'm only doing what's best."

"For who? For you?"

"For everyone." With that, Kurosawa stood. "Ms. Kirijo was last spotted in Ayanagi City… It was over five months ago, but we haven't traced her to any other location, so she's likely still there."

"Just leave." The man trembled. Kurosawa had no response for him. He left the club without another word.

I gazed upon him, his face now obscured by the darkened room. I can't help but wonder what was going through his head at that moment. It was all a very elaborate plan. And in the end he was just another piece of the puzzle. I wondered how long he could go down this path before he would break. It would only be a matter of time.

It seemed I had nothing to fear after all… My coming here has been a waste.

I stood to leave.

"Wait." The man suddenly spoke. It took me a moment to realize that he'd called out to me. Somewhat surprised and impressed, I turned towards him and –

He managed to get a good look at my face. "Just what are you?" He asked me.

All I did was smile. "I'm just another face in the crowd." He did not respond.

I turned to leave and did so without another word.

How curious. How strange. How ironic.

I was now even more curious than I had been only a short while before… But now I had to know. I had to know, just what had become of them – of some of the finest minds of a generation.

* * *

_3:00 AM, Ayanagi City  
__January 1__st__, 2014_

It was in a back-alley that I found her – the leader of the Anti-Shadow Organization, the sole survivor of the Kirijo family, who through countless trials and tribulations had worked her way to the top, stomping on all of those in her way, defying all odds and succeeding where all others had failed.

I found her – Mitsuru Kirijo – sprawled out on the soaked concrete ground, amongst trash cans and spilled waste bins, wearing nothing more than a tattered black dress, staring aimlessly forward with no focus in her eyes.

I almost laughed.

What sort of farce was this?

What cruel world would do this to a person like this?

Oh, that's right.

This world.

This horrid, broken world, where the strong rule over the weak and the weak are absorbed into the mass of human folly.

I walked towards her, somewhat slowly at first. I contemplated putting her out of her misery – it seemed that she no longer had a place in this world. Doing this would be the greatest act of compassion I was willing to give her.

But as I drew near, I was suddenly attacked. Not by Kirijo, but by another. He descends, seemingly from the skies. But the more practical explanation for his sudden appearance was that he was hiding on a roof, or something to that effect.

He was wearing very little himself – a red jacket hung around his neck much like a cape. The hood of the jacket was slung over his head and had seen plenty of wear and tear. He stood before me defiantly, having missed with his drop attack. In his hand was a knife, fairly large for a normal knife. It appeared to be more of a dagger. I couldn't even imagine what he was going to use it for, considering who this man was.

This was Akihiko Sanada – another man I'd taken great interest in a while back. Although not for the best reasons.

"Not another step." His weak but still fairly defiant voice quivers. "What business do you have with the head of the Kirijo group?"

"Head? Of a group? Her? Why, I had no idea…"

"I'm not liking your tone of voice…" He growls, pointing the knife in my direction. "Explain yourself or leave. Those are the only two options I'm giving you."

I can see his face more clearly now. His eyes are clearly bloodshot. His skin is deathly pale. I wondered if he spent any time at all outside of this alleyway.

But there was still the issues of the alleged Shadow attacks. Ikebukuro, Nagano, Shibuya, and Akihabara… I knew of Shibuya's circumstances, but there was still the matter of the other three… It then occurred to me. It was very possible that Sanada was the true power here – and that he had organized these attacks. Unfortunately, I probably wasn't going to get the answer out of him.

"Not very friendly, are we?"

"Look, who are you? Unless you're here to pick a fight –"

"Of _course_ I'm here to pick a fight, _Sanada-san_. In fact, I'm here to kill that sorry excuse for a woman behind you."

He sighs. Instead of instantly flying at me with all his might, he sighs. "Well then… You don't leave me much of a choice here." With that, he sheathed the knife in a small pouch he kept on what served as his belt and ran forward towards me.

I'm almost shocked at his stupidity. He hasn't figured out who I am yet? I feel a bit insulted.

I block his first punch effortlessly, reaching into the air behind me, unsheathing a katana from a seemingly invisible sheath floating in the air behind me. That should do the trick.

With that, he backed off, narrowly avoiding my initial swing. His entire body suddenly twisted as with a mighty leap he landed what appeared to be some deranged sort of uppercut. His fighting style was certainly more ferocious than I remembered – I was beginning to wonder if the damp puddles on the ground were from the rain the other evening or puddles of blood.

I staggered backward, still managing to graze his side with my katana. He backs off once again, this time reaching into one of the pockets of his jacket. He pulls out a very familiar looking pistol.

"Ah, now you're getting serious."

"I'd love to see you handle this."

"Oh, so you want to play Persona? Think you've got the upper hand with that Evoker of yours?" I spread my coat open, revealing the plethora of evokers I had collected and sewn to my person… Well, to be accurate, I hadn't collected them myself… I had a bit of help, if you could call it that. "As you can see, I've got plenty more on hand."

He was genuinely shocked – he hadn't been expecting that, which made this whole exercise somewhat successful.

"Let's see… Now whose were these? Oh, right. This one was Takeba's. Not all that impressive in a fight, if you ask me. This one was… Right, this one was Iori's… Ah, he was a tough one… And this one? Ah, right…" I smile somewhat mischievously. "This one was _His_… That I ripped from your precious machine's cold, dead hands."

With that his composure crashed around him. It didn't take much to get Sanada going – but this was a bit too rich, if you ask me. He rushes at me with a mighty cry, apparently willing to throw his life away for nothing. Far too typical for Sanada.

"_Caesar!_" He cried, pointing his Evoker to his temple and firing without reserve. The Persona in question materialized above him, and with a mighty swing of its sword I was almost knocked off balance, if not for –

"_Rangda_!" I shout with the enthusiasm of a show host announcing his main event. The beast in question soared out of me, flying straight towards Caesar, cleaving him in two in an instant. Sanada's initial rush ended in failure, giving me the opening I need to stab him somewhat lightly with my katana, penetrating his left arm and little else.

From there, he backed off before drawing the knife and throwing it towards me – but without enough force, as he'd thrown it with his left arm. It ended up finding a home in the ground.

He once again calls Caesar, sending a bolt of lightning flying towards me. This time I call upon Take Mikazuchi, who soaks up the attack much like a sponge. I take a running leap forward, planning to end the fight right then, but Sanada rolls forward, causing me to miss only by a hair. The summoning left a bad aftertaste in my mouth… That fool was too much of a brute to ever possess a Persona. The result was one of the most crude and unimpressive Personas I've ever seen.

The next move was likely going to be his last, so I called my final Persona.

"_Atavaka_!" But as my Persona was about to take shape –

"…Caesar." He barely whispered. It took me a moment to realize what he was about to do – but at least I _had _seen it the moment it happened. He had one hand on his dagger, another on the Evoker pressed to his temple. Caesar appeared, and –

"Oh ho? I wonder… Did _He_ teach you that trick?"

The powerful Ziodyne spell passes through the dagger – and then to the mass of puddles gathered around the alleyway. Including the one I had landed in. I was shocked in a matter of seconds.

"Never speak about him ever again… This fight can_ still_ end badly."

"It's going to take a bit more than _that _to kill me…" I spoke with a pained expression as I doubled over onto the floor. From where I had landed I could still see Kirijo.

I laughed.

Sanada then descended upon me with his knife, stabbing me in the chest. He relaxed his muscles, apparently having let his guard down.

"Sorry to disappoint you, but I null physical." With that I reached up and grabbed him, sending a wave of darkness through his entire body. His entire body shakes uncontrollably – it's as if he's having a seizure. He doubles over to the side, his body still out of his control. Ripping the knife out of my chest, I lightly toss it towards him – it lands squarely in Sanada's own.

I walk towards Kirijo. But even then Sanada still attempts to stop me. Even though his body won't even obey him, he still tries to worm his way over towards me.

I kneel down in front of the broken woman. I was able to take a good look into her eyes. I saw no trace of life – she was still breathing, however.

Suddenly, she makes some sort of noise...

"Aki…hi…ko…" She moans in pain.

Ah, I recognize this condition.

Apathy Syndrome.

But in a Persona user…?

How peculiar indeed…

I wonder if _he's _involved.

But before I can contemplate things any further, a weakened Sanada crawls his way over towards me, apparently having calmed down and ripped his knife out of his chest –

Or rather, over towards Kirijo. Constantly reaching out to her, he drags his completely numb body across the ground. I, his practical murder, am invisible. How utterly typical. It seems that Sanada hasn't changed one bit, despite how rapidly the world around him has.

"Let me ask you something, _Sanada-san_. How can such a woman lead another pack of Persona users?"

"Wh-What are you…?"

It seemed he was genuinely unaware… It seemed that, as usual, Kirijo was no threat to society. But there was something else I had to know. "…Exactly when did you find her like this…? I wonder… How did she break? What could have possibly caused such a proud woman to lose the will to live? Was she shattered by the vices of the open streets? Was it her acceptance of her fate? But even more curious… Did you hear her just now? She called your name."

"Mitsuru… called my… name?" Not exactly the response I was hoping for. If it were possible for me to frown, I would have.

"It's a wonder, how someone can fall apart at the seams, yet still have the capacity to feel and understand… You people always find new things to keep me interested." I point my katana towards her throat.

"You bastard… Don't… Get the hell away from…!" In that instant, Sanada coughs up an unhealthy amount of blood. His protest is silenced… For only a moment before he continued. "…Don't…Please… Kill me instead if you want… Just don't… Touch… Her…" His vision grew hazy. His eyes rolled into the back of his head. He lost all signs of consciousness on the spot, his body streaked with his own blood. His arm still reaching out, even though he could no longer move it.

He was still alive, though. Even if only his will was keeping him going.

"_Sanada-san_… You're as much of a fool now as you were back then." I lowered my katana. "But, I suppose that I might as well honor your request… I will leave everything as it is. If you wake, you can go on protecting her... If not, I shall return. I can't let her soul go to waste, after all..."

I then turned and walked out of the alleyway, stepping over Sanada's body. I scaled the nearby wall, reaching the rooftops. Looking down on the scene one final time, I headed off into the night.

* * *

_3:21 AM, Shinjuku Babel  
__January 1__st__, 2014_

I could see the entire city's skyline from here – here, atop the massive tower built as the symbol of the totalitarian control over the entire country. This tower was simply known as Shinjuku Babel – a tower built by the humans to challenge the gods. It was nothing more than a symbol of power – a source of power that would never fade as long as the Shadows roamed the earth.

While their presence is slowly but steadily building up omnipotence, the Shadows are still finite creatures. In this world, Shinjuku is essentially a hive for the Shadows – there were no Persona users dumb enough to wander anywhere near it. The moment they appeared on the Shadows' radar, their days were numbered. As long as Shinjuku stood, not a single one of them had any chance of reclaiming what they had lost. Some would try, thinking they had the capacity to even attempt to do so, but they served as nothing more than a late night snack for the legion.

The tower was operated by humans. In fact, as far as the general population was aware, the Shadows weren't involved in anything that went on in Shinjuku. From their perspective, the entire operation was run by a single man – a man who had crippled the country's government in a matter of hours. He was an enigmatic one, even to one like me who already knows a great deal about him.

For now, he will simply be referred to as King Leo – but unlike Tatsuya Sudou, who once carried the same name, this man poses a threat. A threat to humanity in its entirety.

All it had taken was a simple push – a spark, if you will – to ignite the people. No, it was not the Shadows that created this new world – it was the blind masses that had let them in. It was the masses that let the Shadows into the world, blinded by a false vision of justice – a false vision that sparked the Harumi-cho Massacre that led to the seizure of Japan's government.

The masses were too simple minded to see the truth. And those that could were simply alienated, persecuted, and, in some cases, outright executed. Eventually, it came to the point where there was rioting in the streets – but not amongst the residential districts or in the commercial areas.

Every political agency in the country was simultaneously attacked. But despite that, it seemed so far away from the people. Law enforcement was kept intact. Daily life went on, despite the social revolution taking place only a mile or so away. The people simply watched from the safety of their television sets as King Leo laid waste to their last shred of freedom. And they applauded him. Because he was one of them – he wasn't a government official. He wasn't a figure of power with pre-written speeches and broken promises. He returned that which the public desired. And in exchange, their world was devoured by Shadows.

Shinjuku Babel was his testament to his new age of safety and security. The public had been conditioned ever so subliminally – and now, they were unaware of just how trapped they were. And so King Leo ruled the nation. And if he continued his corrupt crusade, countless other countries would fall to the same influence.

And there is no way to stop him. For every man has a Shadow.

It was sad, really. Even to a complete bystander like myself – I was well aware of the folly of humanity. But despite all of that –

My thoughts were interrupted by a sudden shift in the air around me. Behind me appeared a young woman, clad in velvet blue clothing, dressed rather like an elevator attendant. I turned to face her –

And there, standing before me, was a living testament to the true nature of this world – someone so afflicted by how far man had fallen that she now couldn't even bring herself to smile. Her eyes, once vibrant with the glow of the moon, now reflected nothing but a dull shade of grey. In her open palm was a small orb of dark fire that seemed to behave entirely differently from fire.

"Elizabeth." I breathed.

"Ninety-nine, I believe." She simply stated, extending the dark ball of flame towards me. I lightly touched at it – and in that moment I was filled with all sorts of feeling. I pulled the ball away from her and placed it against my chest.

"Ah…Tatsuya. It's been too long… I wonder, where are they now? Those people precious to you? Perhaps they've met your fate as well?" The dark ball sank into my chest and I was filled with various things – all of the things that made up the soul I had just devoured.

This – this feeling. This was a feeling that I had become addicted to. I ever so loved this feeling – the feeling of consuming an entire being, filling yourself with everything that made them human. Their faults, their strengths, their weaknesses, their fears, their darkest secrets –

And their Persona… Their façade. Their means of self control… All mine to exploit as I saw fit.

I could feel it. I could feel the essence of Apollo become a part of the sea that was my soul.

Once upon a time, the devouring of souls was a forbidden art. An art sealed away with the Dark One in the Abyss by the Two Brothers themselves. But now – now I was free. Free to devour the souls of humanity's finest.

I have left some alive… My motivation? I shall save that for later…

"You're right, Elizabeth." I turned towards her once again. "That makes ninety-nine… Only one remains."

"And who will it be this time?"

"…Let me ask you a question. How many Persona users have you slain in my name?"

"Ninety-nine. As we've just established."

"And out of all of them, has a single one even remotely measured up to his strength?"

"Not a single one." She replied.

"Precisely… I've decided that your final soul must be one that accounts for another ninety-nine of these worthless ones."

"And whose soul fits those requirements?"

"…You already know, don't you?"

"…I have my reserves. But name your target, and they shall die."

"Bring me the soul of a denizen of the Velvet Room… Your sister shall do. With that your role is finished."

With a very curt bow she gave her typical response."As you wish…" And with that, she simply vanished.

I stood there, staring out at the evening sky. The dark clouds shrouded the moon, but it was still visible, even if only barely. Standing atop a tower, looking up at the moon – it brought back quite a few memories. Memories I'd rather have left behind.

This scene before me – it reminds me of an old saying I once heard, long ago.

The moment man devoured the fruit of knowledge, he sealed his fate. Entrusting his future to the cards, man clings to a dim hope.

This world is a fate that man accepted. A fate that man chose to be dealt.

And now, the only ones who have the capacity to defy that fate…

Oh, how appropriate it all is. How close to zero their chances for survival are…

But given those odds –

It's finally happening… Years I have waited, but now the promised time is finally coming.

Ah…

Everything is in readiness…

* * *

_**Author's Note**_

So that's the end of the introduction. Pretty dark and grim, but things have to get better, right? ...Right?

Anyhow, feel free (read: please, I'm practically begging you) to review. All comments are welcome (within reason, obviously). While Favorites are still welcome, I'd be much better off knowing not only that you liked it, but _why _you liked it. That's all for now, so until next time... Keep on reading.

**UPDATE: **Instead of waiting, I've decided to move the fic to the Persona section anyway... Seems more appropriate that I do.


	3. Epiphany

_**Author's Note**_

So, I suppose it's been long enough for me to continue posting chapters. First off, I'd like to that those that reviewed for reviewing. Hopefully you'll all continue to do so, and just for future notice, you can all even start asking questions (because I'm pretty sure they're going to come up fairly frequently) and I'll probably respond to them.

Oh, and speaking of, I can at least throw you all this bone:

The narrator is not: Tatsuya, Minato, or Souji/Yu. Just making that clear...

Anyhow, here we have a slightly different sort of chapter - I know I'm breaking my no OC rule by some stretch, but really, considering how despite having a name how irrelevant this character is I'm pretty sure they don't even count as an OC... Even then, they don't really count as an OC because... Well, I really don't want to get into it just yet. Anyhow, enjoy this new one. I should probably be updating weekly, if you were wondering.

* * *

_**1.2 Epiphany **_

_10:31 AM, Ikebukuro  
__January 3__rd__, 2014_

Morning – the morning is still the same. The sun still comes up, the vacant streets slowly fill up with people, school students make their way towards the school by the train station, idle chatter fills the sidewalks, be it among schoolgirls or friendly adults – morning is still the same. Morning won't ever change – for as long as I live, I want to be able to believe that.

The morning sky is still beautiful. The air is still chilly from the night before and the town is still somewhat drowsy, having only woken up a short while before. Mornings give you that feeling – the feeling that comes with waking up to face a new day. That feeling was something precious, even if all those who were around me never so much as batted an eyelash.

It makes sense that they wouldn't, though. After all, none of them have any idea. None of them have any appreciation for the only visible sign that this was Japan. That this was a nation subjected to some of the most beautiful sunrises. That there was any past society for there to be a remnant of in the first place.

Obviously, I'm quite different. Obviously, I appreciate it all. Simply because I'm even alive to witness the morning, and that I'm not one of them – one of the ignorant passersby that I pretend to interact with. I'd become a high school student. I'd tried to blend in with the masses. But in the end I was always different – because I knew. I knew what really went on.

Every night I would just stay at home – until midnight. Until that time that signified something horrid a few years back. Then I would –

"Amada-kun!" A loud, enthusiastic voice suddenly shouts.

I'm brought back to reality. I'm standing on a bridge, following a group of other students towards my high school of choice. Living in Ikebukuro like this implied that I continue to obey the system – I had to go to high school, at the very least. If I didn't, I'd be deviating from the norm. I'd appear on their radar. And then it would only be a matter of time before they found out who I was.

Then there was the matter of the girl who'd just called out to me. I turned to face her, giving her a very typical smile. She waves at me with her usual enthusiasm, before she runs over to me and latches onto my arm.

This girl was… Well, considering how irrelevant she is to everything, and now little I seem to care, let's just give her a dull temporary name… Yoko Narukami. That should do. That's right, this girl was Yoko Narukami – for the time being, she served as my girlfriend. How did we get along? Her personality type, literally the only thing about her that isn't regulated or controlled, was more appealing that those of the other girls around me. I suppose her appearance had something to do with it as well. But that was all.

In the end our interaction, while seeming so normal to her, is completely foreign to me. She acts like everyone else around me. Talking about how much she loves jazz, how incredible a particular author was, how foreigners were all thoughtless pigs, how well written the script for a very particular play was – without end, with the only change involved being change enforced by the system, she goes on and on. And I simply smile and agree with her. Because if I didn't –

"Amada-kun, you're quiet this morning." She says, pouting slightly.

"O-Oh, am I? Sorry. I'm just a bit tired."

"But didn't you take your pills last night?" She asked completely innocently.

Ah, right – high school students were designated to take pills every evening so they could go to school the next morning in top condition. Did every student take them? Of course – the Shadows know the human psyche like the back of their hand. The girls were told the pills would keep them attractive on a daily basis, the boys were told they would remain physically peaked – it was all one massive lie, of course. I honestly hadn't the slightest clue as to what was actually in those pills. I wouldn't be surprised if they were designed to suppress A-Latency, though. I'm sure the Shadows have spotted the 'high school student Persona user' trend by now.

"Of course I did. But I guess that's no guarantee that I still won't be tired in the morning…" I said with a yawn.

She smiles at me. "Well, I guess that's true. Just don't fall asleep during class, okay?"

"What makes you think I would?"

"Well, I'm just being careful. You know what would happen if you did…" She trailed off somewhat nervously.

"What, you're afraid that I'm going to get stuffed into the Correctional Department?"

"Of course I am! You seem to be a bit on the edge lately… You don't want to end up in one of those, do you?"

"Don't worry. I'm not getting lobotomized anytime soon, alright?" I pat her head in reassurance. She seemed to accept that and her protest quieted down. The rest of our discussion on the way to school revolved around our next date.

It's just all so strange. It's just the same thing over and over – every day, without end. Sure, there's variation, but all of that variation is maintained by the system. If the Shadows want you to take your girlfriend to Tokyo's Big Sight, they'll let you do it, but only as they see fit. And everyone around me? They simply accept the alternative, never even acknowledging the manipulation. If the Shadows want to close off an entire city, everyone in that city will all spontaneously clear out or remain inactive and their lives will adjust accordingly. And those that don't follow the pattern exactly – those are people like me.

So how could the Shadows simply not hunt me down in an instant? Because while people are easily manipulated, they aren't machines. Especially younger people such as myself. Younger people aren't condensed into an unending cycle at that point in their lives. They might all talk about the same things and share the same opinions on everything, but it's all melded into their conceptual understanding of what's right and wrong. They come to the conclusions the Shadows want them to come to on their own and thus adopt that as their opinion. It's all so intricate that there's no way around it.

And so I'm forced to sit back and watch as the Shadows gradually shift humanity, creating an illusion of deviation, while removing reason and individuality from the equation. All women were expected to act one way. All men were expected to act one way. And that 'one way' would alternate ever so slightly to stimulate their false deviation – to keep the population under control.

And I was an outlier. I was the only one – the only one who saw things for what they were.

It was driving me crazy. Slowly but steadily, I would either succumb to the law, or succumb to chaos. It would rip me apart, and I realized that. But as long as I still had the morning – as long as I still had something unchanging, I believed that I would persevere.

School progresses. It's as boring as normal school. Everyone at least still acknowledges that. But academically, everyone is controlled. Every student maintains a relatively high grade point average, with variations never passing beyond a half a point in either direction – violation of that leads to correction. I sat in the middle, satisfying the system's requirements to the dot. I at least managed to keep that part of the façade going.

Afterward I head home with Yoko on my arm once again. We continue talking about the same mundane things before we separate. She heads home, never so much as asking me to walk her home – it was all a part of the required degree of independence girls were brainwashed into maintaining. Common sense would tell you that outright refusing niceties only makes you seem more impolite than independent, but neither Yoko, nor anyone else around her ever seemed to think so.

I could tell her. I could tell her how it was. But then I'd probably be found and erased in a matter of seconds.

It's been difficult. It's been very difficult maintaining an apparently normal lifestyle for one my age. Especially taking every national high school's required trips to Shinjuku to see the symbol of the system firsthand – which served to both keep the ever present King Leo at the forefront and weed out any straggling Persona users – into account.

I almost felt bad to some degree. I somewhat felt for Yoko – I felt bad for deceiving her to such a large degree. Did I love her? No. Was I expected to? Of course. But that's not to say she deserved to die or anything…

Of course, I couldn't help but wonder – wonder how twisted her own perspective on things was. As time went on, I'd begun to see the futility in our relationship. We had nothing in common. Her outlook on everything was so biased and so utterly plain – looking past her appearance, there wasn't a single thing unique about her.

I hated that sort of thing. I despised it. She wears the same face as everyone else around her.

Maybe it's accurate to say that I hate her.

But it's not like I can back out now.

That was what kept me going – that mentality was what kept me from caring. The moment all of this caught up with me, however – it would all amount to nothing. But as long as I kept this façade going, things should've been alright.

_Ah, poor, miserable Amada-kun…  
__You're still so young… You just want to be free, don't you?  
__Then why go on like this?  
_

Because I have an obligation. An obligation to that sunrise. An obligation to remember it when no one else will.

_Think about all the people who got to live their lives to the fullest.  
__Think of all the people that wasted their time.  
__Isn't it unfair?  
__That they got to blow their lives away, while you never got to experience any of it?  
__Let go, Amada-kun…  
__Give in to what you want._

That sort of mentality won't get me anywhere.

_But the way you're thinking now…  
__That's not going to get you anywhere either, will it?_

I couldn't help but acknowledge that. The voice in my head was right – it was certainly right. There was no denying that. But in the end, despite what I wanted, I had to see things from a different perspective.

I couldn't deny it. Even though I felt nothing for her I still wanted to deviate from society's imposed norm. I wanted to break her – to make her human again. I was losing my patience with this new world.

But if I let loose now, then what would everything up to this point have been for? Would acting out accomplish anything in the end?

But the voice was right. What would carrying on like this accomplish in itself?

…

That evening, it happened once again.

I took to the streets my spear in hand. Ultimately, this was how I could suppress it all. This was how I could keep myself from bottling up my anger – by letting it loose on the Shadows. I had no goal in mind. At this point I just killed them for the sake of killing them. Every Shadow that fell to my spear was another deviation from the norm. Every cold and heartless thrust of the spear was nothing more than another extension of my desperation to escape from everything.

And throughout all of it, I never summoned him.

I never used it. I never used my Evoker. I still have it, but it hasn't seen use in years.

Simply because I'm afraid of him.

I'm afraid of what he's turned into – of what I've really become.

…

The following morning, I once again stare at the sun. I could vividly remember the sun as it was years ago. I could remember, looking out the windows of the dorm on a Sunday morning, waiting for everyone else to wake up. Heading to the shrine to visit Koromaru, buying things for Yukari and the others at Iwatodai Station –

The sun had been there. The sun had seen each day pass by. And the sun was still here – still staring down at me, wondering what I was going to do next.

I would never go back to Port Island. I would never so much as even contemplate such an idea. I was afraid – afraid to see what had become of it. Mitsuru-san fell off the face of the earth almost a whole year ago, and everything that had once belonged to the Kirijo group was passed off to the government. I didn't want to see what had changed – if I did, it would be like writing over my old memories. And that was the last thing I wanted.

I made an attempt to count down the seconds until Yoko's arrival. As usual, I managed to count perfectly. She once again greets me with that warm smile. But my escapades in the streets the night before make it all the more apparent that it's all simply a reaction – a reaction expected of her. A reaction she is conditioned into making.

I'd never noticed it before. Because in the past it had seemed much more real.

But ultimately, people have always had a bit of artificiality integrated into them. Only now it was practically mechanical.

"Amada-kun, you're quiet this morning." She says, pouting slightly.

"O-Oh, am I? Sorry. I'm just a bit tired."

"But didn't you take your pills last night?" She asks completely innocently.

The morning is identical to the last. She is none the wiser. And the pattern repeats, with slight variation, whether it be in her speech or in whatever propaganda the Shadows felt like spreading. She is none the wiser.

And I smile at her. And only barely hidden behind my smile is my grimace of agony.

But she just keeps on smiling…

…

I don't want to see her smiling anymore.

I want to see her cry.

I want her to stop smiling…

I want to make her face contort. I want to make her show emotion. I want to make her stop smiling.

I want to, so badly, but I simply can't…

And so it continues. And so I keep pretending that I'm in love. I keep pretending I'm one of them. I keep pretending that I'm normal.

But I'm not. I've never been normal. And now my life is constantly hanging in the balance because of it. And there's nothing I can do. There's nothing I can do to change it. There's simply nothing…

And that night I kill again. I mutilate and deform the Shadows as they file out of the alleyways in mass, leaving nothing left of them. It's all a simple exercise – no matter how risky it was, I had to keep on doing it. It was part of my daily routine, after all – a routine that defied norms. A routine that was mine and mine alone. A routine that made me human – but perhaps _too_ human.

…

It continues. Life keeps going in a straight line, while I keep causing nothing more than small spikes in that line. It's infuriating. I didn't expect to accomplish anything, but in the end, I must've felt something akin to helplessness.

And at one point a rather dreary thought crossed my mind.

What if they know I'm here? What if the Shadows know I'm here? What if they know what I'm doing and they're just letting me live? Perhaps they know that I'll likely collapse all on my own. Perhaps they realize this and choose to let me go on, trapped between a rock and a hard place, slowly wearing myself down before I die from the pressure.

Maybe they enjoy this. Maybe they enjoy watching me slowly kill myself, with no other way out. Perhaps they think that I'll succumb to their reality before that – even though I'd gladly die first. But maybe they know me better than I do. After all, I wasn't the only leftover scrap from the age before. Maybe they've seen this a million times. Maybe there are Persona users all around me – and maybe they all gave in. Was I destined for the same fate? Was I going to give in to the worst fate imaginable?

That evening I once again killed. I killed and killed until I felt I'd killed enough to deny all of those possibilities a thousand times.

I wondered if the voice was right. I wandered the streets at night – for what? I tried to maintain my place in this world – for what? What was I trying to do? Live on? If that were the only reason, why wouldn't I have given up a long time ago?

I felt angry, more than anything else. I felt that everything I was desperately trying to maintain would just fall apart at a moment's notice anyhow. And so I felt it was time – time to accept the reality of things.

The voice was right. About everything.

These people around me – they had their chance. They had their chance to live their lives normally. They had their chance to live their lives to the fullest – like _he_ did. But they didn't. They simply wasted away and cried at the world because of a system of lies and corruption that dictated that they were too stupid to do anything about it. They had their chance – they had their chance to make something of themselves. But instead they gave into the easiest solution.

I never had that chance. I and many around me never had the opportunity to live freely. I never wanted this sort of world. Neither did many other people. But the masses spoke, and the masses ruled – and now the masses are slaves, along with everyone else.

…

Morning came. I stare at the sun, not even sure why I bother anymore.

Yoko calls out to me once again. I smile at her – yet another mindless girl amongst thousands. I smile at the very embodiment of my hatred, wishing only to be somewhere else – anywhere else. I'm only a matter of days from simply screaming at her, telling her to leave and never speak to me again.

I wonder what would happen when that day came. Would I be tossed in a Correctional? Probably. Would they find out that I'm a Persona user? Probably.

That day was inevitable. There was no way, going on like this, that I would be able to avoid it.

So I figured…

"Amada-kun, you're quiet this morning." The same concern. The same tone of voice.

"…"

"…Amada-kun?" She gives me a look of genuine concern. Too bad I don't care. Because it's that same look of concern.

"…Ah, sorry. I'm just… thinking about things."

"About what?" She's too nosy for her own good. And the thing is, I wouldn't mind as much if she were if it was just something about her that was different from the rest.

"…Say, do you want to go somewhere after school?"

"…Um, sure. Where?"

"Probably one of the usual places. I haven't really decided yet." I gave her one of my usual sheepish grins. And in a matter of seconds any doubt in her mind evaporates and she goes back to smiling like an idiot. I wondered if this was how girls were before the Shadows took over. But I wouldn't know – I never got to find out.

After school that day, Yoko and I talk. We talk and talk. I try to lead the conversation this time, much to her elation. I slowly convince her that everything is fine... What an idiot. She can't read the atmosphere to save her life...

We end up talking about all the mundane things I hate more than anything else as we stroll around the city. The entire time I was listening to music. Yoko questioned me constantly about it, and every time I told her I was listening to jazz from whatever the popular musician at the time was. But I really wasn't. I was listening to music from _his _music player. Which consisted of about pretty much everything _but _jazz.

Eventually, it gets fairly late – the sun was already setting, and it would be the evening in a matter of hours. I bring Yoko to an area generally outside of our normal dating grounds. Being perceptive of nothing but her own wellbeing, she notices fairly instantly when we head past a café that we usually went to.

"Amada-kun, where are we going…? And it's getting pretty late – I should get going soon…"

"Don't worry about it. I'm sure nothing bad will happen if you miss curfew once, right?"

"But…"

"It's really not that big a deal. You'd be surprised how many people are still up after ten thirty."

She didn't respond, but judging by the sudden tension going through her body she wasn't all that sold on the idea just yet.

I wonder if she'd even thought about doing something like this in the past. While there were people that tried to break various rules, they were tossed into Correctionals, likely probed for A Latency, and then lobotomized – or at least that was what the public believed to be the case. The reality was likely far more harsh, but the public was already being manipulated enough. Of course it had gotten to the point where people would be thinking of being tossed into Correctionals almost synonymously with the concept of being thrown in jail – it had become that normal, and so quickly. But when faced with it, people tended to crash – much like Yoko was doing now.

I pulled her into an alleyway as the sun vanished behind the clouds. It was effectively nighttime now – only this time around I had someone with me. Someone scared out of their mind.

"Amada-kun…" She spoke in a very hushed tone.

I squeezed her hand. "Don't you trust me? Or are you gonna keep being afraid of things?"

"A-Amada-kun…"

"…You don't trust me, do you?"

"Amada-kun…I…"

"You don't. And it's because you don't understand me." I force her in front of me, able to clearly see the fear in her eyes – she's afraid. Because she doesn't understand the pure damnation directed at her through my sneer, now no longer hidden behind an artificial smile. And, as her nature depicts, she fears what she doesn't understand.

"A-Amada-kun –"

"Ken. Quit calling me that. My name's Ken. We're supposed to be dating, aren't we? Shouldn't we be on a first name basis? Or are you not allowed to do that either? Is that another thing you shouldn't do?"

"I-I don't understand… Why are you saying –"

"Because I'm tired of it. All of it. I don't understand how you all can go living this way. You're all the same. Every last one of you. You're all identical. You all behave the same way. You all react the same way to everything. You're all just part of a group. Oh, but it's good to be part of the group, right? So you don't get alienated? You're all so stupid that you can't see it for yourselves. You need some poor damnable fool like me to tell it to your faces."

She doesn't react. As I violently shake her she starts to tear.

"Ah, finally…! Finally, I don't have to look at that fucking _stupid _smile of yours…!"

"A-Amada –"

I slap her across the face. "What did I _just _fucking_ tell you?!_"

"K-Ken…!" She barely manages between sobs.

I force her against the wall behind me. She almost yelps, but I cover her mouth with my hand, pushing her against the wall with my other.

"That's right… Isn't it so strange to you? Being afraid? I mean – hah, who _knows_ what I'm gonna do to you now? You don't know – and you're afraid. Guess what?" I press her face into the wall, muffling her crying. I whisper into her ear with as much malice in my voice that I was capable of. "That same fear? That same hopelessness? I felt it for the first time four years ago. And now? I feel it every single day."

I realized it now. This was all so similar – similar to four years ago. But now I was alone – there was no one around me I could turn to. I was fifteen now, and somewhat more mature, for what it was worth, but all that time had done was make me more and more desperate – desperate for something I'd never find again.

I hated being alone. That was all there was to it. And no matter what I did, no matter who I tried to find solace in, it all amounting to absolutely nothing. There may have been those that secretly wanted their old lives back. But they would never come out about it. They would maintain their solitude in exchange for keeping their lives.

But I wasn't alone right now, was I? Didn't I have a girlfriend? Something that many people would kill to have?

Yoko is the ideal woman. She's not even remotely overweight, she's kind beyond words, she's intelligent,she's optimistic, she's cheerful, she's physically and socially active, she maintains a set of values - every man in the world would kill for a girlfriend like her.

That would be the case. If those qualities that made her who she was weren't just the result of society's demands that she express them.

Every woman in Japan, ideally, should be like her.

And many of them were. But only because it was expected of them.

And she was no different.

She wasn't human. She was a mere shell of a human.

And I hated her, the perfect woman, to her very core.

Who knows what was going to happen next? Would I have degraded her existence in every way imaginable? Possibly. Would I have just outright killed her? Well, if I didn't, I wouldn't have been able to keep going. But neither of those things happened. Instead, I heard them. And in a matter of moments I realized.

The Shadows stalked the night. And, with the sun nowhere to be seen, I was in their domain.

They came from the rooftops, from the alleys across the street – they seemed to come from everywhere, all that the same time. The moment I stepped away from her, Yoko let out a loud scream – and in a matter of seconds she tried to run. From me or the Shadows I didn't quite know - perhaps both. How foolish – but then again, she was the sort of woman – just like every other – that didn't think straight.

With no perception of what situation she was in, she ran straight into one of the Shadows, which proceeded to knock her over with little effort. She crawled backward, pressing herself against the wall, practically hyperventilating. Funny – I didn't have this sort of reaction when I saw Castor kill my mother before my very eyes. How weak-willed she was.

As the Shadows make their way towards me, I realize that I still have no weapon. I wasn't planning on fighting Shadows this early – but as I racked my brain for some sort of a counterattack, it occurs to me.

I still have my Evoker…

…

I have to do it, don't I?

I've already faced my fears so far –

Perhaps if I just went a little further.

I reached for my Evoker, staring down at it like it was something I'd never seen before. Almost like I'd forgotten that it wasn't a real gun.

I slowly pointed it towards my skull. All I had to do was pull the trigger. I've given up trying to fit in. I've given up trying to live in a one dimensional society.

I should give up – I should give up being afraid.

I've been so afraid of being alone. I've been so caught up over having no one to turn to.

But I'm not alone, am I?

Here I am. I'm right here. Come to me, Kala Nemi...

I pull the trigger. And out of thin air, he appeared – Kala Nemi, my Persona.

I gasp for air – I hadn't done this in so long, but I could feel it. I could feel the exhilaration. I could feel all of it – all of the things that brought me back to the top of that tower, four years ago.

With a resounding smash, Kala Nemi slams its massive fist into the ground, making a shockwave that sent several of the Shadows flying, with the resulting impact killing several of them. The larger ones attempt to rush me, but the lot of them apparently had no experience with any sort of elemental attack. With a crack, Kala Nemi's Maziodyne struck them all, laying waste to more of them.

And all the while, I kept sending him commands. Killing Shadow after Shadow, he laid waste to the seemingly endless flow of them. But the exhilaration was too great for me to notice. This was freedom – this was the power that made me free. Free to live outside of trends and standards.

I kept fighting. I kept attacking. Kala Nemi continued to kill – and no matter how tired it made me, no matter how weak my body became, I simply kept going.

But it came to a point that, if I were thinking straight at the time, I would've taken into account. I hadn't used my Persona for such a long time – it was only a matter of time before it went out of control.

With a loud bellow that served as a pained cry, Kala Nemi began to thrash about, causing more carnage than I could keep track off.

And in another moment, the Shadows stop attacking. The humanoid ones grip their heads in pain. The others simply writhe in place, uncontrollably shivering.

Kala Nemi spreads its arms – and explodes from the inside. And in his place was another Persona altogether.

It had a skull for a head. It wore tight black clothing, with a cape of some sort and a chain of large stone slabs wrapped around its neck. In its open hand it held a long, black katana. It stood there, directly behind me, facing the Shadows.

With a loud cry, it spread its arms, creating a large ball of light over the Shadows. Many of the cowered in fear, but in another moment the ball of light exploded, creating a residual shockwave that almost sent me flying.

All of them – ever last one of the Shadows were vaporized instantly. After the dust cleared, the only signs of movement I could see came from Yoko, who was now shivering from head to toe. She made sounds – sounds, but not words. From a single glance at her, I could tell. Her soul was missing – doubtlessly devoured by the Shadows. A fitting end, but that aside –

The strange Persona still stood there, behind me. I had no intention of fighting any further, yet it still stood there. It raised its katana –and then I realized. It was going to kill me.

My own Persona – or rather, this foreign beast that had killed my Persona – was about to kill me.

And very suddenly, I felt something.

It was fear.

Fear of being alone…?

No. I wasn't alone. It was there, right beside me. It understood me just fine – and it was about to kill me.

No. This was fear of death…

And then, I could remember it all.

This feeling. This Persona. This fear… of death.

I understood now – why I had been so afraid. Why I had been so alone.

For the longest time, I had just been afraid of what my other self had become. But even now, as disfigured as it had become – I had no fear. I was different. I wasn't afraid of the things that kept most people up at night.

I was afraid of dying. Afraid of losing what little I had spent my entire life up to that point trying to maintain. I was afraid to act out. I was afraid to make myself known to the Shadows. All because I was afraid of dying.

Why was I afraid of Death? The truth is that I wasn't. But I'd forgotten about that truth – along with everything that made me truly unique. I'd faced impossible odds. I'd stared death in the face when I was only eleven. I was above and beyond the rest of them – and, for the sake of living in this twisted world, I'd made myself forget all of that.

I'd forgotten that what made me unique made me not only different, but strong. Stronger than anyone else. It made me capable of things that few others were capable of.

The way I was, I could greet Death like an old friend.

How ironic that, in this case, Death _is _an old friend.

"Ah…" I sighed, almost smiling. "It's been awhile, Ryoji-kun…"

The beast, only a moment or two from ending my life, suddenly stops itself.

"I know. I can't close my eyes or cover my ears anymore… I'm not alone, even if it's you I've got chasing after me. I need to do something – I just forgot I could."

With a bellow that served as a laugh, the Persona vanished.

I took my leave of that alleyway, not paying Yoko's mindless husk a single thought.

Instead, I thought of what she had been. Not that long ago, I claimed that she was a mere shell of a human...

Now, it makes sense. With the Shadows ruling the world, with Ryoji-kun having appeared before me -

This world was damnable. There was nothing left to redeem. I won't live in a world like this one any longer.

But I'm not going to die in it either.

There's something I have to do… Something that only I can do…

Something that I will do, or die trying to do.

I went off into the night, uncertain of where this new path would take me. But at least I knew – I knew I at least had Death on my side.

* * *

_1:04 AM, Ikebukuro  
__That Same Evening (January 7__th__, 2014)_

Ken Amada. Once a child the mind of an adult, now an adolescent with the mind _and _body of an adult. Once wanting nothing more than to protect what was important to him. Now wanting nothing more than to erase the world for taking it all away from him. It's fitting, at least to some degree.

I watched him carefully as he left the alleyway. I could've sworn – when he entered with that girl, I saw it in him – hesitation. But now he has none… Perhaps it _was _in my best interest to keep him alive. I stood there, watching from the rooftops as usual, observing the entire exchange. Once again – I had seen it once in Shirogane and now in Amada. I had seen him – the face of death, Thanatos. But while Shirogane hid him away with drugs, Amada embraced him like a brother.

His willingness to stand beside death. His outright hatred for a world that betrayed him. His raw, unimaginably untamed power.

He came to terms with his past_ and_ his present this evening. He has given himself a purpose once again. And even now, he still wants nothing more than to protect what's important to him. But now, all he has left to protect is his idealism. His memory.

He reminds me of another man – a man from the forgotten town of Inaba. A man with a similar desire for companionship and a hatred for the corrupt and useless. A man who wanted nothing more than to succeed, but never could. A man with similar untapped power that, when released, could create an endless sea of chaos.

As it was with him, and as it is with Amada now, the goal is unreachable. The world is unmovable. The world can't handle the truth – exposing it would only make the world reject it more. The journey may make him stronger, but the end result he desires can't be reached. I wonder if Amada will realize this as that man once did… Perhaps then his true worth will be tested.

I wonder… Will he succumb to hopelessness and degenerate into the masses at that man did? Or will he continue fighting until he stumbles upon the one true answer?

I took off into the night, curious not of Amada's whereabouts, but of another's. Elizabeth was likely still locked in battle with her younger sister, and while she was I simply had to stay hidden… But I was too curious for my own good, you see.

Shirogane and Aragaki in Shibuya.

Amada in Ikebukuro.

That left only Akihabara and Nagano.

And so I decided to make my way to Akihabara, in hopes of finding yet another strand of chaos.

* * *

_2:44 AM, Akihabara  
__January 7__th__, 2014_

I apologize in advance for what little progress I make in my quest here. I tend to get sidetracked when something far more interesting comes up. You'll probably find out before too long who the Persona user in this area is anyway, so don't think to hard about it.

Akihabara was once a popular showcase for Japanese culture. Once lined with stores of all varieties, the city was more or less a hot spot for people of all ages, whether they be searching for the newest electronics or looking for an old book in a hobby shop. It was a place teeming with individuality and culture.

It only made sense that it would be the very first city outside of Shinjuku that King Leo's totalitarianism would corrode.

These days every store was essentially the same. Each store was build to sell a very specific type of product, whether it was an article of clothing or something similar. Based on the forced change in trend, the stock would change. And every store in the city would be forced to make this change or be shut down.

It was essentially the death of private business. Thousands upon thousands of stores were stripped of all of their wares, most of which were burned on the eve of the Harumi-cho Dissonance Pyre, which marked the first day of Japan's independence from 'natural law' as King Leo ever so nonsensically put it – not that the masses even noticed or cared to know what he was even speaking about.

Everything about Akihabara was different. It was no different from any other city now. Which meant that Tokyo's law enforcement, ever so egotistically renamed the Black Sun Task Force, made use of the environment however they saw fit.

It all went in one ear and out the other when it came to the masses. Although when sections of the city were shut off for whatever reason, law enforcement would start a fire or some similar immediate crisis and simulate the handling of that situation. Bank robberies, gang wars – all of it served two purposes. One was to make all of the government's behind closed doors dealings invisible to the public. The second was to pretend that there was still injustice in Japan. The public, obviously, ate it all up and asked for seconds.

This evening there was a five alarm fire three blocks away from a large convention complex, which served as the site for some top secret smuggling on this particular evening...

Why did the Japanese police have to smuggle in their own territory? Because it really _wasn't _their territory – Shinjuku was their territory. Everything else belonged to the public – a public that obeyed their every word as long as the aforementioned illusion of society was maintained. Funny, isn't it? Sad as well. But I'm sure you've already become familiar enough with this world to understand that.

This evening, I ran into a familiar face – Officer Kurosawa, who now is more commonly known as King's Associate Kurosawa for having been directly employed by King Leo as a handpicked officer. Along with a squad of seven heavily armed men, Kurosawa seemed to be up to no good. The armed men were probably there to account for their apparent records of A Latency activity in Akihabara – although from a practical standpoint, unless whoever's taken up shop here has Persona capabilities as utterly broken as my own, the SWAT team isn't really necessary. Although if there was someone on that level around here they still wouldn't serve much of a purpose.

It wasn't until examining the large truck behind them that I realized what was going on – they were moving something from the complex to the truck – but what? I was getting a bit excited – this sort of thing was my favorite type of situation to intrude upon.

I saw them bring it down the stairs – it was a large coffin of sorts, completely metallic and heavily locked down. I hadn't the slightest clue what was inside – but I'd be damned if I wasn't going to find out.

"Slowly, now… We don't want to break what's inside." Kurosawa pretty much just spoke his mind.

"You really think we could break this thing even if we tried? I mean…" One of the men had apparently seen what's inside. And his comment made me far too impatient.

"We don't want to wake it up, either." Kurosawa pointed out something the rest of the group apparently agreed upon… Oh, so there was something _alive_ in there?

They loaded the coffin into the back of the truck. Two of them men got into the front, while the rest including Kurosawa were apparently going to ride in the back with the coffin.

"Oh, leaving so soon?" I spoke in a raised voice.

"…The hell?" One of the men apparently spotted me on top of the building with little issue. Seems like they even had night vision goggles for this job... Curious indeed.

Kurosawa followed the man's gaze – and our… Well, his eyes met my face. I jumped down from the rooftop, landing on the ground and creating a small rupture in the gravel beneath me.

Immediately all guns were on me. I put my hands in the air.

"Woah… I didn't even do anything yet!" I complained.

Kurosawa pointed his pistol right between…Well, right where my eyes would be.

"Identify yourself. I won't hesitate to shoot."

I continued to grin. "You _really _can't tell? Even when I look like this?"

"Are you some kind of Shadow?"

"Let's not get our diplomacy in a knot here – I'm not on your side."

"Nice of you to make that clear… Open fire."

With that, the soldiers with sub machine guns shot me full of holes. I took each and every single one of them without so much as flinching, my entire body shaking from the impact of each one. Eventually, I fell over, clearly dead, on the floor.

I stood up a moment later, brushing off my coat, sighing. I'd need a replacement after this...

I glanced around. All of the men - save for Kurosawa, the man who apparently knew no fear - were all shocked beyond capacity. Their faces all held the same, utterly confused expression. I spread my arms wide, allowing the rapid sealing of the gunshot wounds to be visible.

"Well! What is it?" I mocked them.

"Again." Kurosawa ordered in his cold, yet dignified voice.

Of course then I sank through the floor and reappeared behind two of the soldiers, quickly snapping their necks before any of them could figure out what had happened. Oh, did I forget to mention I could do that? Well, now you know.

In that moment, they turned to face me – but Kurosawa didn't. He was rather quick on his feet for an old officer. But regardless, with nothing more than about fifteen seconds to observe my behavior, he realized what I was here to do – and he was determined to stop me.

"Forget him! Get in the truck!" He suddenly shouted. His soldiers obeyed him without a word.

The two closest to me were the only two I managed to grab a hold of. After snapping their spines I took off, heading towards the truck. At that moment the soldier driving the truck hit the gas and sped off into the night. I followed on foot, of course, laughing maniacally the entire way.

I ran along the side of the truck, pulling a pair of handguns out of the air behind me. One of the soldiers managed to catch a glimpse of me through the tinted windows. Completely baffled, he signaled to the other men to start shooting out the windows.

Of course I shot first, killing the two men who leaned forward to take aim. Two more appeared in their place, both of which being far more prepared to avoid my shots. Slowing down slightly, I managed to grab a hold of the rear of the vehicle. Without much issue I took two shots from a fairly blind angle – but I still managed to shoot the two men.

Kurosawa then appeared, leaning out of a window on the opposite end of the truck. He aimed and shot, managing to shoot me in the hand. The impact didn't hurt, but the force caused me to drop one of the handguns, which went spiraling off and onto the ground. There was no further attempt to shoot me down, however.

"Don't waste any more shots… Let _them _deal with him." Kurosawa ordered.

I had a fairly good idea as to what he was talking about. And when several Shadows appeared behind me, apparently running as fast as the vehicle was moving, I almost laughed at their poor excuse for a back-up plan.

One of them came extremely close to me. I turned and faced it, staring into its blood red eyes with my own pair of eyes – eyes that only such creatures could perceive.

I might as well explain my physical appearance – my face is simply a pitch black mask. It is featureless and, ironically enough, faceless – save for the lecherous grin infused into my visage. No matter my true expression I could do nothing but smile. And so I would smile at these creatures – and they would understand. They would understand the complexity of that smile. Because they too were expressionless in the same way.

Without so much as a roar, a battle cry, or anything of the sort, the Shadows chasing me suddenly gave up. I laughed. In the end, the Shadows weren't that much better off than the humans were – after all, all they are amounts to an incomplete human.

With a leap, I landed on the top of the truck, determined to break into it through any means necessary. I couldn't exactly sink through every material in the world – and steel was one of the things that didn't settle too well with me. The best course of action, in this case, was to start slamming on the roof until it caved in.

But eventually, Kurosawa joined me on the top of the truck. I wasn't sure how he managed this sort of thing, especially at his age, but nevertheless he stood only a foot or two away, with some sort of machine gun pointed at me.

"You're not trying to kill me, are you?"

"I think I've seen enough to know that I'm not getting away with something like that… But back there you clearly felt those rounds. And given that fact, coupled with where we are right now… Give me a reason why, if I were to shoot you right now, that you wouldn't go flying off the edge."

"Heh… I see you're still going above and beyond with your duties. As usual. I wonder... If the good king, god save him, told you to jump off a bridge, would you go through with it?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Do I… know you from somewhere?" His tone of voice and his expression didn't match at all – he was only even responding right now to get information out of me – information he'd almost be willing to die to obtain.

That's right. I was a new blip on their radar. The more he would know about me, the better. But it's not like they could ever track me. No one could. And I knew enough not to dump vital information to make it possible. So, practically insulting the man, my responses became more and more cryptic.

"Maybe you did, but if I told you from where, you'd insist that you didn't."

"Explain yourself. Who are you? How did you call of the Shadows like that? What's with that mask of yours?"

"Ooh, do you _really _feel the need to call my precious face a mask?"

"So I take it you _are _some kind of Shadow."

"Eh... I'm as much of a Shadow as your sovereign ruler is a just man."

"Then at least give me your name." It seemed that he wasn't going to question my remark about King Leo… Peculiar indeed.

"You're a brave man, you know. You've just seen me slaughter your men without much effort, yet here you are, pointing a gun at me, demanding I answer your questions. But as you are brave, I am calculating. I will give you no such name."

"Then this conversation's over." He said with an ounce of frustration in his voice.

With that he opened fire. I tried to laugh, but the sound of my voice was obscured by the sound of bullets. I was thrown from the truck as it took off into the night, leaving me sprawled out on the side of the road, riddled with bullets, very much like road-kill.

I stood up, brushed off my coat once more, and walked off in the opposite direction. A few moments later, as I came across a street light, I slammed my fist into it as hard as I could, creating a huge dent in the metal.

How infuriating… I really wanted to know what was in that coffin.

Oh well…

But it doesn't really matter, does it?

I'm definitely going to see it again.

After all, the promised time is close at hand…

I retreated to the rooftops –

All I had to do was wait for Elizabeth. Then it would all be over…

Soon. Very soon, everything will come to fruition. And not Kurosawa, Amada, or anyone else for that matter, would be able to stop it.

* * *

_**Author's Note**_

So ends this chapter... Certainly not the most hopeful dystopia, is it? Of course now we have Ken, one of the main characters, on the move... Where will he show up next? You'll probably find out in two weeks. So have fun with that.

Once again, please read and review. I'm always open for question, comments, and suggestions. And I mean that as seriously as I said it.


	4. Dissonance

_**1.3 Dissonance**_

_9:56 AM, Akihabara  
__January 8__th__, 2014_

It's freezing cold this morning. It's freezing cold – just like the morning of January 8th the year before. And likely the morning of January 8th next year. And the year after that. I wouldn't be surprised if that were the case, no matter how unlikely. Only because of how everything else around me seemed to be just as unchanging.

But I figured, quite some time ago at that – does it really matter? Does it matter that today will be the same as tomorrow? Isn't it better than what we had?

…

It was on this morning that I decided that wearing the red scarf I'd bought from what used to be a general goods store would be somewhat appropriate. Throwing on my usual black clothes and the scarf, I headed outside, my goal supposedly being to find myself a job. Such a task, which at one point I'd met with enthusiasm, now seemed like nothing more than a waste of time. If there was one thing I could say that hadn't changed with even some amount of certainty, it was the size of my wallet. There was little the Shadows could do to that, after all…

I was a bit disappointed that my favorite electronics store was reduced to a mini-mart. But then again, did it really matter all that much? I could probably find something else to keep me entertained. After all, I was fairly good at that sort of thing.

I decided to resume my wandering activities. There was little I could really do with myself, especially considering how I still didn't have a job. But there was still value in wandering the streets. The more I exposed myself to this world, the less I'd care about the one I'd left behind.

There was little going on at this time of day. As there weren't any schools in the area, there weren't any children about. Considering the time of year I doubt anyone else would be out at this time of day either. But regardless, I found myself walking along the streets.

I close my eyes and smile, feeling the chill of the January morning. Of course the average person with no tendency for the cold would probably be more irritated than anything else. But, having been stuck in below zero temperatures for two whole days a year or two back, I was a bit more resilient that the average person.

Despite the time of day the large speakers that lined the streets were playing jazz and occasionally a public service announcement, mainly informing the public of events they would probably have to reason not to attend. Of course the option to skip them altogether was still available.

I'd been in Akihabara since before the change – and the Akihabara of today was a far more peaceful and an overall much safer area. Really, there isn't much to indicate that a totalitarian government is in control of the country around places like this. I'm sure things were different in Shinjuku, but I wasn't in Shinjuku, so it didn't particularly matter to me.

…

Don't worry. I still know what I am. I still know I'm essentially public enemy number one.

But that doesn't mean I don't have to care about it. After all, even if they knew what I was, I had no plans of interrupting their sad excuse for a paradise. I was fine right where I was.

There wasn't any real reason to going against the world the way it was – there wasn't anything I could achieve by doing so. And life really wasn't that bad to begin with. I did miss some of the old world to some extent, but at least the new world wasn't all that bad.

The streets were safe. There wasn't any real crime whatsoever. Everyone was interested in the same thing, so everyone had something to agree with each other about. Sure, individuality was nonexistent. But was that really such a bad thing?

After all, the world's problems were caused by individuals.

There are no more differences. There are no more senseless battles. There are no more violent impulses or desires to deviate from the norm. There was no culture, so there was no counter culture.

I pose no threat to the Shadows, so they'll stay away. Even someone like me can go on living in this world, even if they still have attachments to the old one. Even if they still have the power to reject this world.

But I won't try. So I won't be targeted. So I can keep living along with the rest.

Things are safer this way. Things make more sense this way.

I'm fond of this world.

And the more I think about it –

The less I want to go back to the way things were.

_But every time I close my eyes, I remember that evening.  
__That evening on the bridge.  
__That evening when I watched my friends die right before my eyes  
__And that masked killer walk all over our hopes for a future._

I continued my morning routine. It wasn't a very unique routine – it was something that plenty of other people did. Even in a world as regulated as this one, one could still go on without having a job. You theoretically still had flexibility in your life. You aren't forced to have a job or to take a certain path every single day – you simply couldn't deviate from the margins that were set in place.

But that's okay. Because I don't have any reason to deviate from those margins. I have no reason to want things I used to have simply because I don't have any use for them anymore. If I were to try, if I were to even attempt to exercise my originality, I'd probably cause more trouble for myself than it was worth.

After all, it isn't as if anyone else around me would care. But I didn't need them to care. I was fine, going on and on like this, even if I spent the rest of my life this way. Perhaps I'd end up in a relationship with someone or not – I didn't care. I was just fine like this – living without the fear that I'd been facing my entire life.

There was once a time where I was expected to be strong. Expected to give more than I possibly could. Expected to put everything on the line for something so futile. At the time I'd given into the pressure. I'd convinced myself that no matter how dire the situation became, I could pull through. I believed that it was possible – to defeat something that could not be defeated and come back alive and well. Looking back on myself, I was far too optimistic. Success in the face of failure – I would never face such disastrous odds ever again.

But now, in this new world, all that was expected of me were things I could already do. Things I had the capacity to do. Nothing hung in the balance. Nothing was at risk. I could simply live, living for the sake of living, and living in total tranquility.

That was this new world. A world where such a tremendous crisis could never form ever again. A world where the good no longer have to die young.

I've grown so fond of this new world.

_But whenever I think about that night  
__And a night long before it  
__I remember his face.  
__I remember their dying screams.  
__I want him back.  
__I want them all back.  
__And I'd do anything to get them back.  
__I want to bring everything back .  
__Back to the way things were.  
__But I won't.  
__I never will.  
__Because I love this new world.  
__Far too much.  
__And I'm too afraid to go back._

* * *

_11:56 PM, Akihabara  
__January 8__th__, 2014_

Four minutes. Four minutes is all I have… I wish they'd put some actual pressure me one of these days.

My red scarf is mostly in tatters at this point. My skin is marked with gashes and my eyes, as focused as they are, are still very heavy. I've clearly been going at this for a very long time, and there was very little more I would physically be capable of.

But as far as this sort of combat was concerned, I could manage without any sort of protection – I could've even done this in sailor fuku and it still would've been doable.

I'm positioned in a rather narrow alleyway, a few feet in the air. My breath is silent, I remain perfectly still – I might as well have been a trash can someone glued to the walls. My eyes, however, dart back and forth, looking for the smallest sign of movement in the street in front of me. The moment I picked up anything, I would have to make a move – a move that had to not only neutralize all of my pursuers, but make it possible for me to escape within my four minute time limit.

My hands tighten around two well crafted daggers, acquired from a third party along with some poor excuse for ninja tabi I was wearing under the scarf. I can feel it – only a few more seconds. Only a few more seconds before they're upon me. Only a few more seconds before I have to strike.

I hear a loud roar.

And in that moment I leap from the alleyway, grabbing onto one of the rough edges of the wall, throwing myself into the air over the open sidewalk with nothing but my upper arm strength and one of my legs.

Roughly twenty feet in the air, I look down. My eyes pierce through the motion blur like a hawk – and I see my target.

"…Chariot, hm? Six hits should do the job." I murmur before I descend upon the massive Shadow, piercing it with both daggers.

It lets out a hoarse cry before it struggles to break free – but I take the initiative, ripping one of the daggers out of its superficial flesh and plunging it straight into the open wound several times. Its cries are eventually reduced to whimpers – and it falls over, dead. As it dissolves I leap off of it, landing on the sidewalk a few feet away.

I hear another cry.

It shouts, calling my name with what I believe to be a mixture of rage and fear. It both challenges me and begs me to stay away.

"If you insist…"

Two minutes.

With that, they came. There were at least thirty of them, all storming down the side of the road like a stampede, all headed straight towards me. In truth, I never expected that they would essentially throw everything they had my way – I never considered such a possibility at all, in fact.

This could get a bit messy – was I about to void my time limit?

Well, if it came to that, I suppose it would have to.

I took another stance, having already devised my counterattack.

The moment they close in, I will leap. I will leap into the air, descend upon just one of them, and then…

…Yes, that seemed to be the only way. The only way to get out of a mess like this one.

And so they drew closer, and I took my running leap.

I quickly scanned the pack of them. I needed to find one that wouldn't collapse immediately from this plunge I'm about to perform.

I eventually find it – Strength, approximately seventeen hits. Right around the center. Seemingly too perfect, but then again this stunt was seemingly too impossible to perform. What I was about to do would, in most cases, be deemed completely suicide.

Then I suppose I'm lucky – to have death on my side, that is.

I land on top of the Shadow, almost instantly drawing the attention of all of those around it. Seemingly exercising their mindlessness at every turn, they all attempt to suffocate me – to pile on top of me at the expense of their fairly strong ally.

"This should do…" In a matter of seconds, all I could see was black. A massive weight was placed on top of me, becoming heavier and heavier by the second. It was already becoming hard to breath – as senseless as their plan was, it would most likely have worked had I not planned ahead.

"…Ryoji!" I call out to him – the shadow that stalks my own. The shadow that stalks us all.

I called to him, and he appeared – death's true, unrestricted form, Thanatos.

He appeared and, with a blinding flash of light, caused the mass of Shadows above me to burst open from the inside. The Shadow beneath me had already perished, but what little there was left of it was erased in the brilliant glow as well.

It was a quick and painless death. It was the sort of death that Shadows perhaps craved.

I landed on the pavement beneath me, gasping for air.

"Too close… Only a few seconds to spare, too."

But as I stood to get my bearings, Thanatos began to squirm unnaturally.

My eyes widen. I feel a sudden pang in my chest.

My vision swims. My heart tightens. And then I feel it – the feeling of bony fingers wrapping around it, slowly but steadily trying to rip it out of me altogether. I fall over, forcing down a scream with every ounce of self control I had. Thanatos, with what little control it still had over its body, raises its katana over its head, reversing the hilt and blade with one quick motion. The blade points towards its chest.

_The moment man devoured the fruit of knowledge, he sealed his fate. _He whispers repeatedly, almost like a mantra, his voice becoming more and more desperate with each passing second.

"The Arcana…are the means by which all is revealed." I gasped, still reeling from the excruciating pain in my chest. As I speak, the pain seems to alleviate. My heart slows down to a far more normal rate. "The silent voice within… within one's heart whispers the most profound wisdom." I sigh with relief, collapsing forward once more, this time from exhaustion.

Thanatos freezes, before dropping his katana. Sinking to the floor and leaning back, almost against me.

"I'm sorry." I whisper. "But it's fine now…"

_Beyond the beaten path lies the absolute end… _

"I know…" My face falls.

_It matter not who you are…_

"But Fuuka won't die." I spoke. "I won't let her. I'll keep protecting her for as long as I can…"

_The girl isn't ready, Juno…_

"Then what would you have me do?"

_She must face her other self… But her other self must be willing to face her…_

I had to reply. But I couldn't. Because even though I knew that, even though I had accepted that, even though I had acknowledged that there was no other way around it –

I simply couldn't do it.

It seems that now is the time to start explaining things.

As I am, I am not Fuuka Yamagishi. Nor am I her strength to face life's hardships. Instead, I am her Shadow – her true self. A self that she accepted long ago, but now is rendered useless. I was once Juno, but now I only exist as a Shadow that can control Fuuka's body and mind at will. Ultimately, I should shed this body, but doing so would kill Fuuka. I have no desire to be free –and I have no desire to kill my closest friend. But as things are now, I wonder if she can even remember my name.

You might be wondering, then, how I became a Shadow in the first place.

I feel ever so childish – being affected by neglect this way is most certainly not suitable to one like myself. But what makes it even worse is that Fuuka has not only accepted the sense of isolation that doubtlessly plagues her as well, but she's gone as far as to accept the world for what it is.

She's denied the things that made her who she is.

She's given up – she's given up the path she should take.

And so I have to do this in her place – I have to keep doing this. I have to kill Shadows in her place. Otherwise she would be swallowed up by it all and never understand how worthless the life she chose to lead was.

Fuuka will not fight back. She rejects the purpose she has been assigned. Even though her entire life up to this point was shaped in such a way that she could use her power to help those around her, now she almost refuses to acknowledge that she has that power in the first place.

And so I have to reject her. Even if I don't want to, I have to. I have to become a Shadow to protect her.

So why won't I convince her? Why won't I face her directly and make her understand?

Because I don't think I can, no matter how hard I try.

Because she gave up something precious to her to escape fate. To escape the bindings that would lead to her death. She gave up someone she loved more than anyone else in the world. She let him die because if she didn't none of them would have a future.

When she was given the opportunity to bring him back from the dead, she refused. She understood this simple idea, even if she didn't accept it at first. She understood – she and one other person, Aigis, who in the aftermath became her closest friend.

But when the time came she once again stood to fight. She didn't back away, because she knew that if she gave in she'd have wasted her loved one's sacrifice. So she tried to fight, disregarding the futility of it all.

But this fight was truly futile. The Composite Angel appeared before us, and chances for survival were slim.

And to continue on, to once again escape her fate, she offered up Aigis.

And then she decided.

She had given up so much for the chance to live freely. But those around her had given up that much more.

So she wouldn't do it, ever again. She wouldn't stand up against the Shadows. She would live a normal life, even if the definition of normal would change ever so drastically.

That boy's life was cruelly ripped from him for the sake of so many people, many of which didn't deserve his sacrifice.

Aigis' life was stolen so her friends could live, even though at least Fuuka never deserved her sacrifice.

Eventually she decided that she should've gone in place of either one of them. What had she accomplished at the cost of two precious lives? Nothing. She had only failed.

She'd never earned the right to live for as long as she had, but she was still alive despite that. And so she decided that she would live for the two people who should've been allowed to live in her place. She wouldn't waste what they had died to protect.

So why will I not correct her?

Because she cannot be corrected.

Because by correcting her, I am only rejecting her. I am only rejecting her and that which she was determined to protect.

That is why. That is why that even with my dearest friend, Death, offering precious words of encouragement I still cannot bring myself to face myself.

And in that case, as I continued to defy her, it was only a matter of time before she went wild.

It was a losing battle.

And even then there could still be no clear winner.

* * *

_8:56 PM, Akihabara  
__January 9__th__, 2014_

Oddly enough, I destroyed my red scarf yesterday… I can't exactly remember how, but I suppose I just got it caught on a fence or something. Buying a new one wouldn't be particularly difficult, and so I decided to head out to a store this morning to acquire a new one. But by the afternoon, I had effectively run out of things to occupy time with, and so I ended up wandering around the city until night came.

I _had_ actually spoken to a somewhat familiar face earlier today, but as I've pretty much closed myself off from typical interaction I'd turned down his advances. I actually feel a bit sorry for him – I'd given the same 'I'm already dating' excuse several times, and I really should just tell him that I'm just not plain interested. It's not like it's against the law or anything – but I just don't want to… It's hard to explain, and even harder to know where to_ start _explaining, so I won't.

I was wandering the otherwise vacant streets. You were theoretically allowed to do this sort of late night wandering, but all of the usual things were closed off or shut down and most people never really seemed to have a reason for just wandering about at night. Maybe my inclination to late night wandering was just something left over from my memories of the past world. But I decided to just listen to the rather catchy jazz I'd downloaded to my media player and took in the frigid evening.

This was the sort of thing I could get used to rather quickly. And funnily enough, it was something only this new world could give me in a place like this. I'd never be able to just do this sort of thing whenever I felt like it years ago. There were too many problems with evenings in a city – but as things are now, there's no such plethora of problems. The streets are clean. There's nothing to worry about…

I find myself in front of an alleyway, where evidence of a car crash or something to that effect are scattered everywhere – dents in the sidewalk, a broken chunk of a building – the alleyway I'd happened to come across was clearly out of place. It was a wonder that no one had taken notice before.

I walked into the alleyway and turned around –

And something felt very familiar, yet completely out of place. Or rather, something felt like it fit perfectly in my order of events from the night before, but shouldn't have been there at all.

I can feel something very odd creep into my memory.

This place – it reminds me of back then.

It reminds me of the tower. Of the Shadows. Of the time when I was fighting for my life.

Now why would an otherwise completely random alleyway invoke such a worthless memory?

I stood there, almost in a daze, trying to put the pieces together.

"Having a fit of déjà-vu, are we?"

I almost don't register it at first. But after a few seconds go by I realize that someone had just called out to me. But even more peculiarly was where the sound came from.

My eyes shoot upward. And I see a figure standing on the edge of the rooftop, looking down on me.

"Honestly, I don't know what it is with you Persona users and alleyways these days, but at least this sort of trend makes you easy to track down."

That voice.

My eyes widen.

_I know that voice…!  
__It's him…!  
__It's that man… No…!  
__It's that monster.  
__It's that monster that took her away from me…!_

He jumps from the rooftop without a second thought, landing in front of me as if he'd fallen only a foot instead of twenty.

And I can see his face. The bald head. The completely vacant face, with no features whatsoever – only the shape of a man's head and nothing more.

Nothing more – other than that smile. The lecherous smile, plastered onto his blank face, as if to parody the concept of a face. As if to outright mock human individuality for having been reduced to nothing more than facial features. As if to insult humanity to its very core.

I feel something suddenly snap. My brain gives off some sort of discharge –

And then I, Juno, stand before the masked murderer.

"Ah… So I see… Very peculiar, Juno, that of all of the Persona users that yours would reject you so thoroughly that you would become a Shadow."

I unsheathe the daggers, hidden in a bag that Fuuka had just dropped onto the floor. I have no armor this time around, but then again fighting this man was futile enough in the first place that no amount of armor would be of any use.

"You've certainly got a lot of nerve, coming to a place like this and showing yourself to us." I speak coldly.

"Ooh…" He makes a depressed moan. "You're not _still _mad at me for that whole Yakushima business, are you?"

I almost laughed. "Fuuka gave up her reason for living because of what you did…!" I almost lunge at him outright, but his response stops me dead in my tracks.

"Yamagishi hasn't given up a thing… It's you, my dear, who's knocking on death's door."

"What are you saying?!"

"Yamagishi wants to live for the sake of living. You, on the other hand, are only acting out this way because you fear rejection. You fight the Shadows. Why? Because she won't. You don't want to accept things for the way they are. Yamagishi wishes to let things go. She wishes to exercise her freedom that she abandoned her two closest loved ones for. You are simply acting out in protest."

"You're saying that…" I slowly begin to understand.

I was beginning to wonder –

"That's right. You see now? Yamagishi has accepted her fate. You have not."

"Then…!" I gasp.

"I can see it in your eyes… The conclusion you've come to is the full truth, and nothing but it."

"…"

"You are not –"

"Please…!" I gasp. "…Don't say it…!"

"Yamagishi is one of us. She has accepted the course of nature that this world demands of her. She's done defying it. She's taken the steps that all of humanity has ignorantly taken with full awareness of what she's doing."

"But she's always… She's always been stronger than that…"

"You and I both know that none of that matters. Not anymore. She's accepted the world that's been laid out for her. She doesn't want to fight it anymore. She's willing to become another face in the crowd – because she's decided that fighting will only lead to more death… Unlike you, she fears death. She lost far too much to death to appreciate its presence as you do…"

I couldn't believe it. But it was all true.

All this time, I wasn't protecting Fuuka.

I was only rejecting her. I was making her suffer, with nothing for her to gain.

I desperately tried to force her away from the norms of this society – norms that would lead her further and further away from the truth. But at some point she'd decided that she wouldn't care where that society would take her – she didn't want to witness more death.

And she would live in obscurity if that was what it took…

I understood now. It had happened so gradually, but even then why couldn't I have seen it coming? Wasn't I on a level above humans?

But that wasn't the case – I understood that now as well.

I am not the power – I am not the power to face oneself.

I am human.

And Fuuka has become my Shadow.

It is not me controlling her.

It is her controlling me. It is her voiceless cry for help. Her way of expressing her agony. And I simply interrupt her on a regular basis, trying to fight a battle that Fuuka had no interest in winning.

I fell to my knees.

Was I crying? It was very likely.

"But I wonder… Why does Death cling to you as well?" I had no interest in understanding his words. "…Perhaps if I were to ask your heart directly… I would get an answer worthy of the time I've put into stalking you."

He then stretches his left arm out to me.

"Now, Yamagishi… Don't you want to be free? Don't you want to just keep on living?"

_B-But…You'll…You'll kill me, just like you…!_

My eyes widened.

"Fuuka, no…!" A sudden pain shot up my chest.

"Aigis was... no matter, her death is irrelevant to the present. Aren't you in so much pain? Doesn't it hurt so much? Don't you want to escape from everything? Aigis wouldn't want you to be this way – _he _wouldn't, either."

_But…You…You're lying…!_

"That's right…Don't listen to him!"

"And on the topic of _him_… Unrequited love is a terrible feeling, isn't it? Doesn't it hurt? Having watched someone you loved die for you without the slightest idea of what they meant to you? Isn't it unfair that you'd never be able to repay them? That they no longer have use for your love that's followed you around like a sick puppy for four agonizing years?"

_It hurts… It hurts so much, but…_

"They both died for you. But your sentiments, your reasons for continuing to suffer at the hands of your other self, won't ever reach them. I promise you that your death shall not come to pass – if you take a step forward, on your own, and free yourself from that shell. You might even learn to forget the pain… Wouldn't that be wonderful?"

_That…That would be…Wonderful._

"No…No, Fuuka, please, don't…Don't…!" I then felt another surge of pain – this time it caused me to lose control of my stomach. I spat out all sorts of liquid onto the concrete in front of me, shivering.

"That's it… You've spent too much time fighting. You can rest now – you can rest, and no one else will have to suffer in your place."

_Yes…That's what… What I need to do._

With an agonizing cry I lurch backward as Fuuka seemingly separates herself from me. It's essentially as if my innards are being ripped out of my body all at the same time.

And she stands there, in front of me, her appearance being no different from my own, yet her demeanor resembling the weak and fragile Fuuka from four years ago.

I wonder – had she ever changed at all? Had she just learned to put on a face and take whatever came at her with a stone wall? Had I, her other self, utterly ignored this change within her?

What sort of Persona was I? What was I capable of, if I couldn't even protect myself?

Her eyes have the glow – the inhuman glow native to all Shadows. And she simply looks at me, her face twisted into some sort of agonizing look that makes me want to turn away and never look back.

She hates me. She hates me so much…

"That's it… No one has to suffer for you anymore… You don't have to worry. You can live in peace."

Fuuka's entire shape then sinks into the floor – and she vanishes altogether. And so she disappeared – off into the night she went, with no sign that she had even been there to begin with.

"That's right… Now you can suffer all on your own, and never have the sense to realize it." He finished with a light and somewhat amused grunt.

I ran at him, my daggers ready. Of course he blocks my attack with little effort and pins me against the ground with his foot.

"This is a losing battle. You couldn't defeat me with _five _Persona users. What good will _half _a Persona user do?"

"You _bastard_…!" I snarl.

"Let's get something out of the way… If I left the two of you like that, what would've eventually happened?"

"…!"

"That's right. She likely would've lost her will to go on, gone wild, and killed you off with her. At least this way you both get to live." He then lifts his foot, releasing me. I make no attempt to attack him.

"You see now why Death followed you around? Because I do."

"He was trying to warn me… That if things kept going the way they were, it would be too late…"

"Right. But you didn't heed his warnings. You just kept killing… The trend with you people these days seems to be 'get as close to turning into Shadows as possible'. Not fun for folks like myself if you ended up going all the way, but there was little to be done here."

"…But you hunted Persona users. Why go out of your way to keep _some _of them alive?"

He laughs. "Hah, like I'm going to tell you. You're fond of reading spoilers, aren't you? Sorry, but you'll get none out of me." With that, he turns to leave.

"And that's it? You want _nothing _else?"

"…Well, if I had an even remotely human body, I'd probably ask for sex favors, but… Seeing as how that's not the case…" I didn't have any response for his lighthearted take on the situation.

"…So what happens now?"

"You make a choice, dear." He says with a slightly raised voice as he walks off into the distance.

"What sort of choice?"

He laughs. "You have to decide that as well."

And so he vanished, taking to the rooftops, leaving me to my thoughts… Thoughts that made me realize something rather obvious, although I'd never truly acknowledged it before.

I was human now, right?

And I was one of the last few humans that were truly human.

So should I fight?

Should I fight for myself for once?

Should I fight to make Fuuka understand how things really are?

Or should I give up, like she did?

Fuuka was a smart girl. She didn't make her choice out of irrational fear or anything of the sort.

So then, if she chose to abandon all hope –

Then what should I do?

* * *

_3:21 AM, Shinjuku Babel  
__January 10__th__, 2014_

The scene was rather grim. The top floor of the tower – the throne room, as it had become – was alive with danger. Danger of a very close proximity. There were twenty-five people in that room, all Leo's attendants. But one of them was our favorite police officer, whose apparent anger had led the rest of them to expect the worst.

Kurosawa was one of King Leo's most trusted officials. And here he was, attempting to convince the king that the path he was about to take was a completely wrong path. You can only imagine how well this is going to end.

"I don't know how many times I need to say it…" Kurosawa fumes, his voice barely raised but his disagreement more than apparent. "The man who attacked us killed several of my good men, and on top of that fended off the Shadows. He wasn't human, he clearly poses a threat, yet you still insist on letting this whole incident slide without a second thought?!"

Several of the men around him tried to calm him down, but to no avail. Kurosawa was a madman when it came to protecting the public. And it seemed that little old me had made the already sizable chink in his armor seem more like a dent.

King Leo was surprisingly calm about this whole mess – he was still smiling with his million dollar evil grin, which coupled with his half-opened eyes made it seem like he was ignoring Kurosawa's protest altogether.

"Why won't you say anything?!" Kurosawa shouted. "What if this man turns on the general public?! Can't you see the danger in this whole situation? Turn away from your experiments and that vile beast we uncovered for just a moment – can't you see? The people are in danger!"

"…Kurosawa. Come on, man." Leo spoke with his generally bored tone of voice. "You were given an assignment. You were to ship some fairly valuable cargo to the tower. Now… You succeeded, correct?"

"Yes, but that isn't-"

"Then there's nothing to worry about. Have we seen any sign of this man before?"

"No, we haven't, but he is far too dangerous to be left alone!"

"The tower is impenetrable. Whoever this guy is, if he's not on our side, he probably knows that… He won't attack, so we don't need to worry about him."

"But he might start attacking citizens to get his way… He's dangerous, and we don't have the resources to stop him."

"And you want me to stop our seventeen billion yen project dead in its tracks to hunt him down?"

"We have to protect order, don't we?"

"Order will protect itself… Just relax, and go back to doing your job. If he poses any serious threat, I'll do something about him. But as it is now, he's not a problem." With a wave of his arm, Leo let out a yawn. "Now go do cop things, won't you?"

Kurosawa still didn't seem to have been sold on the idea, but he did not offer further protest. The men around him calmed down – it seemed that there wouldn't be bloodshed this time. The tension in the room gradually dropped. Leo did value Kurosawa as an officer, after all, so the chances of blood being spilt over this matter were already fairly low.

Kurosawa stormed out of the throne room, and gradually the other attendants in the room began to disperse as well.

Eventually, only Leo and one of the scientists apparently associated with whatever project was being developed were left.

Leo laughs.

"It looks like you drew a bit too much attention this time." He taunts.

"I couldn't help myself. I came here almost straight afterward – I really just want to know what's in that coffin."

"Straight to business, huh? Sounds like a plan to me." Leo rises from the large iron chair that served as his throne. I step out from the shadows behind it, and we head down the hallway and towards the elevators with the scientist in tow. The tower is two hundred floors in height – the place we were headed to was located on the very bottom floor, which was actually at the base of another fifty floors that went below ground.

"I've been a bit curious. Why hasn't the United States attempted to liberate this country yet? I'm a bit surprised that they'd let a long time ally be completely revolutionized in a matter of days." I start prying right away as we waited for the five minute ride to expire.

Leo scoffed. "Those nuts? They've got enough problems of their own."

"Oh really? Like what?"

"After every foreign politician felt like they needed to be in the know about the Shadows, some asses who went to Harvard started running experiments on the Shadows. Since they had government funding from a nation that lives off of pretty much worthless currency, they had the resources to go a whole lot further than we ever did."

"Oh…? And what was the end result?"

"All kinds of things… Things that they couldn't control. They ended up tampering with the very world around them. And the end result? The sun might seem normal to us, but to them? The rays are not only far more intense, but the ozone and all kinds of particles in the atmosphere were turned into some kind of cloud that interferes with the sun. If you're in America and the sun touches your skin – you're dead because of that cloud."

"That sounds delightful."

"The general public went into an uproar. The government can't control things if the people don't listen to them – that's why my little enterprise here works. So they're gonna fall apart all on their own."

"But isn't the research relevant? Can't you use it for something?"

"We are… It's just a matter of time before America's brightest get us caught up to speed – we'll be doing things beyond your wildest dreams soon enough."

"Can I hold you to that? My dreams are a bit wilder than _your _wildest dreams… But that aside, what's your reason for having some killer beast hanging around, especially if you've got something like that underway?"

"What we're working on overseas is a bit more long term than we need it to be… While Kurosawa's a bit paranoid, his information on the scattered Shadow massacres is actually pretty damn spot on."

"Hm… I wonder who's behind the attacks?"

"That's what we'd like to know… Although knowing you, you already have a good enough idea and just won't tell me." Leo, for what little effort he seemed to put into things, was still incredibly sharp. But having come to that conclusion, it would seem that he didn't care either way – why else would he have deliberately hidden me from Kurosawa? Clearly he isn't interested in who's been attacking his Shadows – likely because whatever was in that coffin could deal with anything it could face.

I laugh. "Eh, I'm pretty much guilty as charged, but that aside, this thing you've collected – can it really stop clearly experienced Persona users?"

"I'm pretty sure this baby can knock over a few buildings in a couple of seconds."

"This tower, even?"

"Hah, it'd rip this tower apart even faster." Despite the rather grim nature of what he was telling me, his grin never seemed to falter for a moment – it seemed to become more and more egotistical by the second.

"It's funny, though." He continued. "Japan is already under my control. America's going to be a divided nation in a few weeks. And even then I'm going to open Pandora's box and let one nasty bitch screw things up even more."

As he said that rather ominous line the doors to the elevator open.

And I see it. In the distance, past rows and rows of surgical equipment, computer stations, and large apparatuses that I couldn't comprehend in the slightest was the so called beast that resided in that coffin, tied down to the coffin and suspended in a large class cylinder that was hooked into even more machinery.

It was a woman. A woman with long, silver hair and facial features that made her seem all the more like a woman – but she wasn't. The rest of her body made that clear – she was a machine, adorned with mechanical parts, weaponry, and massive headphone like apparatuses that sufficed for her ears.

I stared. Far too much, might I add.

"So _this _is your idea of an unstoppable weapon?"

"Hey, at least she's got a good face." Leo laughs. "But you'd be amazed… We found her in the middle of a leveled city up in Russia… It took some serious bullshitting and enough men to take over Paris in a few hours, but we managed to smuggle her here."

"…And why exactly was the city leveled?"

"Well…" He grins,"…someone in that city opened the coffin. We found enough bodies and enough survivors to verify that out of the thirty soldiers the government sent to contain the attack, more than half of them died to _close it_."

"Hm… And you're certain you can control such a beast?"

"That's why we've got her in a permanent coma. We can do whatever the hell we want and she won't so much as bat an eyelash."

"But what happens when you _do _activate her?"

Leo shrugs. "We pray."

"You should probably invest in a better insurance policy than that. I wonder… How fast would all of this fall apart if Shinjuku Tower were to crumple to the ground?"

Leo fell silent. It seemed that he'd taken my inquiry to heart – at least it seemed so.

Looking upon this woman that was a machine, I was reminded of Aigis, a slightly different machine. While Leo's woman was a machine, Aigis can be better described as a machine that was a woman. And ultimately that simple fact sealed her fate that evening.

If this woman were ever to truly become a woman, like Aigis once had…

…Perhaps that would make things a tad more interesting. Perhaps then I could gaze upon this creature and see more than an instrument of destruction.

I turned away. "Well, I've seen enough."

"Hah. Too scary, even for you?"

"Looking at her like that… It's not fear that comes to mind."

"Oh?" It seemed that Leo had taken interest in what I was feeling at the moment. Uncharacteristic at first, but then again he'd likely whatever I said against me as soon as possible.

I won't tell him, even if that wasn't the case. I won't even tell _you_.

"I've places to be. Nagano, first and foremost."

"Ah, right… Well, you have fun screwing around with our public enemies. Don't bother bragging about it."

"Hm… I may have to make a return trip to do just that."

"I'll shoot your face off if you do."

I lazily raised one hand as a sort of a wave goodbye. "That joke's gone stale. Come up with a better one."

And so I was off, once again, into the night.

The way things were before, and the way things are now –

I can't help myself – I have to draw the connection every time I see it.

If Leo's beast is the future of this nation, the future of chaos, the future of the very fabric of human ingenuity and social disparity –

I wonder… Will they appear?

Will the four I have waited seventy years for finally appear to stop her?

I could only hope.

But there was nothing I could do to ensure it – not yet.

Unless…

Unless there, in Nagano, fortune will finally favor the bold.


	5. Disparity

_**Author's Note**_

A couple of things to bring attention to:

The story has been renamed, now simply being "Reverse Rebirth." There's a reason for this, but I won't go into it just yet.

As it stands, this first part of the story is going to be around seven chapters. So we've got three to go, and I've already written final drafts up to six.

As for whether or not Souji will make an appearance… Well, Naoto made it out of Inaba, so the protagonist has a chance of making it out too…right?

Anyhow, this chapter takes us back to Naoto, who now is narrating herself. At this point the plot gets moving, although the end of the previous chapter counts as well. So… Enjoy, I guess.

* * *

_** 1.4 Disparity**_

_8:30 PM, Nagano  
J__anuary 13__th__, 2014_

_I can still hear your voices.  
__Your voices – all of your voices, even though I don't even know all of your names.  
__I can still hear your voices – from that time we spent in that town.  
__The hours we spent in that food court, doing little more than having fun.  
__But you were all my closest friends.  
__And I can still hear all of your voices.  
__So I'm sorry.  
__I'm sorry that you can no longer hear mine._

I found myself gazing up at the cloudy sky as night finally began to set in. Whenever I wasn't in the middle of some life altering battle I found myself doing this sort of thing very often. After all, there was little else I could think of doing.

I'm having a hard time remembering when this all began – but considering my condition, that's hardly anything to be surprised about. But despite that, I believe I've come to the point in my life where the madness seems to routine that I have a hard time remembering what things were like before it started.

But when I think about it – wasn't the world _always _this way? Even before it became a dictatorship?

What was I before now?

Naoto Shirogane – a detective? Was that ever the case?

I was fighting Shadows before all of this started, right?

That's what I'm still doing to this day, right?

So is it important for me to care about the details?

I just need to keep fighting the Shadows. I don't need to worry about anything else. I don't have to waste time thinking about anything else.

But that was a bit too impossible for someone like me – someone whose mind was already moving at an alarming rate before they contracted amnesia.

The town I'd lived in had been erased, as well as all those who lived in it, which unfortunately enough included my grandfather, and, by proxy, my mother. Why I had been spared by I didn't know – but the fact of the matter was that I likely _did _know. I simply couldn't remember.

Ultimately I haven't the slightest clue as to why things are the way they are. But in the end I really don't care enough to question any of it. All I can seem to think about is what it is that I'm missing – what portion of my memory is pulling me down. I can't let it go – I have to know, no matter the cost.

And I meant it – I was most certainly willing to give up everything I had left.

Every time I call to him – every time I call upon Yamato Takeru, I silently pray. I pray that by some miracle I could remember something, even something small and seemingly insignificant. That was why I could fearlessly enter a fight I had little chance of winning on my own.

But the more I fought the more deteriorated I became. At this point I could probably die from far less serious injuries than the average person. I'd probably contract pneumonia if I sat in the cold for thirty minutes. I was physically so weak – partially because of the drugs, partially because of my unstable Persona.

Death was always lingering nearby. Death was following me like a shadow, very much like the Shadows, waiting for the moment that I would leave myself open. I knew it was there. It knew I knew it was there.

And the more I accepted that reality, the more I tried to question the world around me, the more I tried to reach out to a truth I could no longer reach, the more deprived and the more deranged I became.

I was going mad. Slowly but steadily, I was falling to pieces. And if not for Shinjiro, there would be no one around to pick them up.

It brings me back to the time when I encountered him for the first time. It was almost a year ago, not all that long after the Harumi-cho riots. But I suppose my story begins just before that.

It was 2011. I had found myself stranded, with no home or background or even any money to spend. I tried to ask for help. I tried as hard as I could – I even begged. It came to the point where I had to secure some source of money to keep feeding myself – and in the end I found myself selling myself on the streets, killing others for money, and huddling in front of what might've been the only poor shelter in the entire country to conserve as much of it as possible.

I was lost. And the world around me – it took advantage of that fact. As much as it could.

Back when he was a simple man with a massive vision and several billion yen he managed to acquire illegally, King Leo devised the plan for his Messian order, a name that only he ever actually stuck by. Part of his grand vision was to construct a military force to dominate the streets of Akihabara and Tokyo's major political areas. He named his military forces the Acid Legion, a group of unskilled, unemployed citizens turned storm troopers with nowhere left to turn that took to the streets and slaughtered the innocent with biological warfare.

Morale was always high. There was never a moment where the legion lagged behind or so much as lost more than a man or two. Its method of combat was so underhanded and so utterly deadly that civilians didn't stand a chance. The military had no power as much of the actual manpower the military was composed of had already jumped sides. Foreign relations would do no good as similar movements were beginning to pop up everywhere.

The Acid Legion was a band of merciless killers. And I was one of them.

At one time, I believed in King Leo's words. I believed that the world as it was needed to be reformed. It had gone from a uniform society to a shapeless cesspool that cared nothing for the people that had lost everything.

I was sick – I was sick from my deteriorating mental condition, I was sick from my degenerating lifestyle, I was just so sick that I was going to explode one way or another.

The deciding blow was when I encountered my father, now alive and well. But of course, he never knew what was going on, even if I was his flesh and blood. That reality might as well have never been real. I might as well have never been real.

And so I took to the streets, as did most of the unemployed that were touched by Leo's speeches. I took to the streets and I simply did what I was told. I killed hundreds with no remorse. It became intoxicating – the stench of death that only death could give off. A stench that only someone as close to death as I could smell.

It was pure anarchy. I only slaughtered, but many of the men and women around me did _far _worse. By the end of the movement, many of the politicians that had survived the chaos simply killed themselves. Many of them were killed through their families. There were buildings destroyed, there were women violated and children slaughtered – it was simply chaos. There could be nothing more disastrous, I thought once.

Did any of the madness alleviate any of the pain? No. Because all the while I just kept on thinking.

_It was our town.  
__I can't remember its name anymore.  
__Why can't I remember?  
__Why can't I remember our town?  
__Why can't I remember your faces?  
__Why can't I remember your face?  
__I loved you, certainly I did.  
__Then why can't I remember?  
__Why can't I remember the one I loved?_

Eventually the fighting stopped. The government collapsed. Only then did I remember – the Shadows, their darkness, and the darkness they brought to the world. The world began to fill with them. In the end I figured it out – King Leo's plan wasn't to rule the world. It was instead to feed off of human insecurities, play the entire race for fools, and turn society into a mass of Shadows.

But I could remember. I could remember a man that once had a similar goal. I could remember the folly of his ways, and so I could see the folly in King Leo's actions. But even then, the public had simply watched the destruction from their television sets. They had seen what Leo had wanted them to see. They were smitten with his new wave of patriotism and many decided to follow our path to ruin long before the conflict even ended. King Leo would doubtlessly succeed in his task.

I was torn. Was there any reason to start fighting? Could that hope I secretly held on to have any meaning? Or was there merit to trying to fix this world from the inside?

But in the end I made a decision.

I don't care about the people around me. I would fight the Shadows. Because their resurfacing sparked memories within me. So perhaps if I just kept on killing, I could eventually reach my answer.

That was all that mattered.

And so I reawakened to my power. I once again found my strength to overcome life's hardships. And so I killed and killed, more and more until I simply couldn't kill anymore.

Of course, not very long afterward, I met Shinjiro Aragaki, who essentially pulled me out of an alleyway in Akihabara one evening about a year ago. I had used Yamato Takeru relentlessly. I had driven myself to the point where only those mystic leaves our old fox companion had could save me. I was slowly turning into a vegetable, and had fully accepted my fate for what it was.

I could kill, but it wouldn't come to anything in the end.

…If only Shinjiro _hadn't _found me. Perhaps I would've died believing that.

But ultimately he took me in and provided me with the medication – a very special sort of drug designed for Persona users who could no longer control their power, or in some instances could never control their power in the first place.

Yamato Takeru had gone mad long before. For two years I never even noticed it – but at one point he had been replaced with the face of death – the face of death that now seeks nothing more than my own death.

The medication suppresses my Persona. It forces it down, but in exchange causes a severe mental relapse. It's the sort of medication you'd want to take as infrequently as possible.

It was this medication that I became addicted to. I doubt further explanation is necessary.

But Shinjiro – he saw something more than a warm body in me. I'm still not sure what, but I'm still alive because of him, so questioning him would be insensitive.

Things between us were always incredibly strained. I could never understand what was going on in his head, while he seemed to know everything I would do before I did it. This sort of relationship wasn't healthy for either of us, but Shinjiro had essentially nothing else to turn to.

I tried asking him about his past once. He told me he died, but he came back to life. And the person who brought him back from the dead died so a lot of people could go on living. How selfless, that one would give their life to save those of everyone else around them, even if many of them didn't deserve to live. I wondered if this person was even real to begin with.

At one point, Shinjiro explained the more recent events of his past, mainly in an attempt to get me to stop hunting the Shadows. He spoke of a battle with a Composite Angel, an entity that he fought with four other Persona users. The angel slaughtered them all, but he only took one life. Shinjiro always seemed to warn me indirectly about these things. Of course he still warned me directly enough of the time as well.

I never really listened to him all that much. But even then, I had to accept the facts. I'd likely be dead at this point if not for Shinjiro. I'm grateful for what he's done, especially considering how he takes the same drugs that I do. I'm not sure what to make of any of it, though.

It's a familiar feeling. It's the feeling of having someone care for you while asking for nothing in return. But it's a feeling that I've been detached from. It's a feeling that I can't quite comprehend anymore.

Of course the less I listened to him the more broken down I would return to our Ikebukuro apartment every night. And the more broken down I would be the more work it would be for Shinjiro to keep me from passing out and likely never waking up. It came to the point where I could no longer recall the evenings – although the numbness between my legs the next morning was indication enough. I never cared enough to question it, nor did I ever question Shinjiro's degree of awkwardness that seemed to fade away the more this happened.

I wasn't sure what I was doing, carrying on like this. I had no relapsing memory. I only had drug relapsing. I simply continued fighting a pointless battle.

But I wouldn't have it any other way. Because I'd already experienced things the other way. And I wouldn't go back, no matter how hard things became.

Today was no exception. Although today was a tad bit different.

Here I was, in Nagano, following Shinjiro for once into a bad situation. Of course we had yet to stumble upon that situation, but I could feel it.

There was some sign of a Persona user in this area. All in all it seemed that something was giving off rather peculiar signals – signals that we subconsciously picked up and followed here. Nagano was far enough away from Shinjuku that we could move without attracting too much attention – all eyes were on Mitsuru Kirijo who was essentially named public enemy number one only hours before she seemingly vanished off the face of the earth.

Shinjiro had allowed me to follow him here – only on the condition that I could not make use of my Persona, no matter what happened. He had relieved me of my pills as well – he was pulling out all the stops for this.

I continued staring up at the sky as Shinjiro rested – we'd been searching the alleyways since noon that day and Shinjiro needed to rest.

Of course whenever the time came for pause, we always found that the Shadows would attack. They knew us well enough – they knew humanity well enough to understand our thought process. They were steadily becoming more and more advanced, to the point where they might have even started developing personalities on their own. That, I assumed, was King Leo's true goal. To create a world of self sufficient Shadows that exist on a level higher than humanity.

I came to that conclusion back when I joined the Acid Legion. I was willing to kill others to achieve that goal at the time. But when my natural disposition against Shadows resurfaced, it seemed strange to support them.

I truly didn't care. I didn't care how it happened – I had only wanted the world to pay for what it did to me. But now I don't even believe that anymore. All I want now is to find some reason to keep on killing. It would only be a matter of time before my desire to seek the truth would falter. And then – only then would I have truly nothing to live for.

It was around this time of the evening that we were visited. Of course initially we believed our visitor to be another wave of Shadows, but that wasn't the case. We had thought initially that we had found our target, but apparently Shinjiro decided otherwise.

Standing in the entrance to the alleyway we had been hiding away in was a boy. A boy who was somewhat younger than I was, although old enough to be in high school. In his hand was a bloodied spear and covering his face was what appeared to be a ski mask, only fairly damaged.

Shinjiro only stared at him, with a bit of disbelief apparent in his expression.

"Ken?" He asks a tad too quietly for his normal speech patterns.

The boy removes his ski mask and chucks it behind him. "Not sure how you figured it out, but alright, I'll give you that one."

"Aren't you in school?"

"Yeah…That wasn't working out for me."

"What the hell have you been doing?!"

"What do you think? I'm definitely not going cosplaying, if that crossed your mind."

"When did you start doing this?!"

"A…A really long time ago, actually. Of course now I'm done pretending I'm anything but a merciless killer, so here I am." He shrugs his shoulders.

"Dumbass."

"Zombie."

I could tell this would only get worse the longer I chose to keep quiet.

"Why exactly are you here?" I asked the boy.

"Oh, and who's this? You pull her off the streets or something?"

Shinjiro gave him a rather straight to the point death glare. "Don't act like I do that sort of thing all the time."

"I'm Ken Amada, by the way." The boy continues. "Unfortunately enough I'm here for the same reasons you are."

"You're tracking that signal?"

"Right. I figured I had to start somewhere, and turns out Nagano was a good choice… Although, the way this turned out…"

"I'm not following."

Shinjiro suddenly grunted. "Wait… You're not thinking –"

"This is a setup to get us out in the open? Wouldn't put it past that grinning lunatic."

"…" Shinjiro fell silent.

"…I'm missing something here." I point out the obvious.

"You didn't tell her?" Amada almost gave Shinjiro a look of disbelief, but his uncaring face didn't seem to get it across.

"I did… It's that angel guy I've mentioned."

"The Composite Angel? You mean the one who can't be killed?"

"That's the one." Amada sighs. "There's a good chance this is all his idea of a joke. And the punch-line will probably kill us this time."

"The way I understood he was a bit tentative about killing that last time you fought."

"Yeah, well, who the hell knows what's going on inside that guy's head?" Amada's point was fairly strong. Although there was still something about the entire deal that I didn't quite understand.

But there was very little time for us to mull it over.

He came from the sky without as much as a sound. We had been talking about where we should head from there.

He simply landed in front of us, and with a shout he seemed to implode from the inside, creating a massive shockwave and a blinding light that sent us all flying, destroying the buildings around us, yet leaving us completely unscratched. I was hit with flying debris, damaging my leg to a certain degree, but aside from that the sudden attack itself seemed to do nothing. I heard Shinjiro call out to me, but I could really hear what he was saying.

"All alive, hm…? I suppose I should try a bit harder next time." Our assailant speaks with disappointment apparent in his voice. I try to get a good look at him, but he turns away from me before I can.

"What an entrance… You want a prize or something?" Amada taunts as he rises to his feet.

"…Oh, Amada-kun! I didn't realize you were there! You haven't gotten much taller, have you?"

"My height? Is that the best insult you can throw back?"

"Well, if I had a bit more time I'd come up with something better…"

But in that moment Shinjiro lunges at him with an inhumanly massive leap, his axe poised to plunge into the man's back. But the man draws a katana, seemingly out of nowhere, and repels the attack with little to no effort. Any kind of sword would've shattered instantly from that sort of an impact – but his didn't.

"…But _someone _doesn't feel like being polite this evening." He finishes his sentence, sending Shinjiro flying backward into more debris.

"You've got some nerve." Amada continues.

"I know… So many people tell me the same thing these days!"

"So what is it this time? Are you going to actually finish the job this time around?" Shinjiro spoke up.

"…I can't make it sound any more sincere… Aigis was an accident." Shinjiro and Amada clearly don't buy it, however. I honestly don't either. Especially if he says it in such an insincere voice.

The angel sighs and then turns to me. "Oh, so Shirogane tagged along as well? How wonderful… I can test you all at the same time."

"Test?" I question.

"You see, I know your story, Shirogane. I know it well enough to know that out of that little pack of misfits you joined, _you _were the most insecure."

"What do you know about –"

"I know _everything _about your town. I know why it vanished, I know why you're still here, and I know why things happened the way they happened."

"…"

"Would you like to know the truth? You'll have to kill me first."

Could this man – or rather, this angel – know the truth about that town? Could he really have the answers I've been searching for?

"You see, you were mentally the most developed, and therefore the weakest. You had not the blind rage of Tatsumi, nor the submissive personality of Amagi, nor the misplaced courage of Satonaka or even the Kujikawa's false sense of security. You could see things for the way they really were – you were almost one of a kind in that town."

He was causally dropping names. Names that made my head sear with pain. Names that I should have known but simply could remember. He knew what effect they were having on me. He knew that the more he spoke the more my mind would react. The more my mind would react, the more agitated Yamato Takeru would become. "A-Almost?" I barely manage to speak.

"You had a stronger perception of the world around you. You were weaker because you had no facets to fall back upon. Your hidden truth was blown out in the open and from that moment on you had nothing… Yet here you are, alive and well, while everyone else you've ever known has faded away… But looking at you now, I can't see why you were chosen…"

"What're you…saying?"

But before the man could respond, Amada attacks. Raising his spear into the air he brings it down upon the angel and stabs him through the shoulder.

But in the next moment the angel turns around and, with a resounding crack, slams his fits into Amada's chest, breaking the ribs and bones that absorbed the force and sending him flying out of sight. With a quick swing of the katana, a massive shockwave of some sort of black smoke flies from the hilt towards Amada's landing area. A large explosion scatters even more debris – it was very likely that Amada was amongst it.

But in that moment, Shinjiro appears once more, once again lunging towards him. But at the last moment, he releases his axe and grabs a hold of the katana, leaving the angel open, even if for just a moment.

The axe collides with his face.

"You shouldn't have done that…" The angel speaks rather calmly, although his anger was still apparent in his voice. The angel shouts, forcing Shinjiro away from him, this time likely doing serious damage to his back in the process.

I could now see him.

All it took was one look at him – and I could understand it all clearly. The lack of a face, aside from that twisted grin. The virtually featureless surface, encased in the darkest of black. The cracks that ran along the now damaged surface, seeping with some black ooze. This man clearly was not human. He didn't necessarily fit the idea of any kind of angel, let alone whatever a composite one would be like.

Shinjiro's axe had clearly made a dent. His face was cracked, although it didn't seem to make all that much of a difference. But we had all decided in that moment that if we were to destroy that face of his in its entirety, we would have some sort of victory on our hands.

But was that even the case to begin with? Did cracking open his face make any real difference? Or was his face practically porcelain to make us believe we were doing damage? Was it all just a ruse? A ruse to make us hope to defeat him, even if it were impossible?

I stared at him, long and hard. I tried, with all the grey matter my brain contained, to see through him. I knew what he was. But I couldn't understand _why. _

"You've gone silent, Shirogane." He taunts me with his garbled voice. It only occurs to me now – I've been referring to this creature as 'he' for the longest time. But in reality, I didn't know what gender it was. But I, along with everyone else, have assumed that the Composite Angel is male… Is there significance to that as well?

"Naoto…" Shinjiro grunts from his place across from us. "Just…Don't do anything stupid."

I give him a very curt nod. It seemed that I was on my own for this round – Amada was still nowhere to be seen and Shinjiro was more or less spent. I doubt that Castor would even obey its master if it were to be called in Shinjiro's current state.

It seemed that the man was done with his talk. Action would have to be taken.

There were very few options for me right now. But even more pressing than that is my lack of time – there's no doubt in my mind that this man will grow bored rather quickly. And when he does, this bout will be over – and it's a bit too optimistic to assume that either of us would come out alive. But given that fact… There was something I could do that would ensure I'd have more time to think things through.

He was indeed done with his talk. But I had to somehow keep it going.

"Let me ask you some things."

"You want to _talk _your way out of certain death? My… I'm beginning to wonder if you're the peak of human ingenuity."

"I know you aren't going to tell me what your purpose here is. But what is your name?"

"My name? Didn't Aragaki tell you?"

"I know that you're a Composite Angel, whatever that means particularly. But surely, even someone like you must have a name."

"A human name, huh…? Well, I suppose I _do _have one of those. But then again, why should I tell you? I don't think _you'd_ benefit from that information at this point." His personality definitely shines through at the worst of times…

…His personality…?

Fatalistic. Pompous. Self Indulgent… Yet despite his clear self-centeredness he has an ulterior goal that involves… sparing his victims?

This man was attacked by five Persona users some time ago. In the end he only killed one of them. And earlier, he seemed to possess a tremendous amount of respect for the one he killed. He even seemed uncharacteristically melancholic about it.

Even though his patience is dwindling he still doesn't seem all that hell-bent on killing us. There had to be something more to that.

He is reluctant to kill his enemies. He is selfish and greedy to the point where his avarice is his sole driving force.

Why is there such a huge gap between these behaviors?

This man has hidden depth. And if there would be any chance of getting out of this situation alive, I would have to deduce all of it in the next few minutes.

My eyes shift to the katana he seemed to cut through a building with. It's incredibly feudal. It's too old to be of any real use in a normal fight. But it can create those waves of darkness that seem more like intense burst of flame.

But once again –

_Why? _

"Your death is guaranteed for the most part, however… My name is of no use to you dead _or _alive… Very well then. Allow me to formally introduce myself…" As he speaks, he swings the katana, once again producing a black shockwave. I attempt to avoid it, but my body moves too slowly and I end up falling over, my left shoulder searing with pain.

"At one point I was two, but now I am simply what I am. I am the Composite Angel – I am Nobunaga. That is all."

"Then tell me – are you really Oda Nobunaga? Or are you something made in his image?"

He grunts. "My name is Nobunaga. Nothing else matters."

"I refuse to accept that."

"Unfortunately, Shirogane… The world doesn't revolve around you." He swings the katana once more, this time making a shockwave that I manage to dodge. "No…Now _you _revolve around the world. If you want answers…"

I quickly move towards him, readying my handgun. I wasn't entirely sure where I was going to go from here, but I could at least keep things moving at this pace.

"You simply have to take them for yourself…!" I finish his sentence.

I take aim and fire. He dodges effortlessly. And the cycle repeats. I continued to make vain attack after vain attack, while the Composite Angel, apparently named for Nobunaga, seemed to become progressively faster as I became more weary. He wasn't simply inhuman – he was simply the polar opposite.

He wasn't human. So he had to be –

"This has gone on long enough." Raising his katana into the air, Nobunaga creates a strange pentagram on the ground around him. It seemed to grow in size by the second until it enveloped the surrounding area.

And in that moment I knew – I had to get away. Far away.

I quickly turn and run. There was no other way.

I grab Shinjiro, trying to hoist him up with what little strength I have left. I couldn't just leave him there, but it might've been a futile effort to get both of us out of the range of that pentagram.

"…Look, just go." He whispers to me.

"Not happening."

"Just stop it."

"No, I'm not…"

"Naoto –"

I smack him across the face. "I'm not leaving you. No matter what you say." My determined eyes meet his weak willed ones – it seems as if he's submitted to me but –

With a pained groan, he grabs hold of me –

And in a very inhuman sort of way, he throws me – fairly far at that. He must have been making use of Castor to some extent.

I'm sent flying into some rubble, just outside the range of that pentagram. I see Shinjiro standing, using his axe as a crutch, breathing heavily.

Almost instantly I scramble to my feet and run towards him –

And in that moment, the edge of the pentagram lights up. A dark cloud of fog shoots upward from the markings. Shinjiro's already fairly obscured form fades from view entirely.

The fog isn't solid. Shinjiro is just on the other side.

Yet I can't move.

I stop dead in my tracks.

Because I can feel it.

This cold, dreadful feeling.

This fog –

This was more than just fog.

It was the essence of death, given form.

I stare forward, perhaps wanting nothing more to see through the fog – to see Shinjiro. To confirm that he's alive.

I stand there, slowly hyperventilating, already expecting the worst.

All I have to do is walk forward. The fog obscures my sight, but only because I simply won't walk through it.

I'm too afraid. I'm afraid of what would happen.

Was Shinjiro already dead?

Was there any point to tossing myself into the jaws of death?

Time passes, and the feeling becomes stronger and more intense. I can feel _them_ now, too. The Shadows were amassing around this place, watching closely like predators hunting their prey. They were drawn to that stench of death.

…

Why? Why is this feeling so familiar?

Why do I feel like I'm forgetting something important?

…Of course. I get it.

It's because I'm about to lose something important to me.

Not even just my own life –

Shinjiro has become important to me, at least to some degree.

But despite that I can't take a single step to save him.

…I wonder – is that how things went back then?

Is that how my past life concluded?

Then this is a mistake…

I have to go.

And it's not too late.

I could feel the Shadows closing in by the second.

"…No, I'm… I'm afraid. I'm afraid of dying. But I'll never let it end this way…"

It was do or die – or do and perhaps die anyway.

But without another moment of hesitation I stepped into the black fog –

And I was somewhere else – somewhere I'd never been before. Somewhere that I never even thought could exist.

It was a dark void – there was no light of any kind. There was simply darkness. There was no ground beneath me, yet I wasn't really falling. Or perhaps I was falling, but had no perception of direction.

All I knew was that Shinjiro no longer stood where he had been standing –

But I could see _him_.

In the distance, even though there was no light to speak of, I could still see that lecherous grin. I could still see him, standing off in the distance. Nobunaga was there – and almost instinctively I drew my gun, aiming and firing on reflex.

I didn't see any sign of movement. His grin simply remained there, plastered in place.

He didn't speak. He didn't move. He simply remained there, motionless. As if he were just a statue.

I blink. And he vanishes.

I blink again. And he's standing a foot away from me.

By the time I feel his hand sink into my chest it's far too late. The excruciating pain comes as an after-effect – there was no telegraph. There was no sign that he'd even moved. He simply appeared before me and stabbed me with his fist, if such a thing were possible.

I could feel his hand wrap around my heart.

…He was going to rip it out of my body by force.

"A shame…" He murmurs. "You'd finally grown up, too… But at least now, you may become a part of a greater power…"

But then he gasps.

"…Ah, but you…Your death…was certain…" He gasps.

I almost couldn't hear it, but in the moment before Nobunaga gasped, I heard something – a very faint sound, but a sound nonetheless.

It was the sound of a spear – tearing through Nobunaga's chest.

He releases me, and I fall backward, almost instantly feeling for the wound he had made –

But there was no such wound.

I couldn't comprehend it, especially in the moment –

Then I looked upward – and there was a light. A faint but clearly visible light.

And in the empty space before me, Kala-Nemi appeared, striking Nobunaga with its massive fist.

Nobunaga was sent flying, but he managed to recover from the attack and appeared to swing his katana.

I hear metal clash with metal, creating a spark – a spark that lights up the space around me. The void is a vast sea of dark purple haze – with a light seemingly imbedded into a space beneath what served as the floor.

But as soon as I registered my surroundings, I saw them – Nobunaga and Amada, locking weapons in the distance.

"I remembered something just now." Amada spoke rather calmly. "The day I watched you kill Aigis, I thought I'd seen through you. I thought you were just a heartless monster that only knew how to kill. But I was wrong…I didn't come close to understanding what you were."

"Oh? And now you've apparently got me all figured out?"

"You're tampering with things you don't have control over."

"Oh?"

Kala Nemi once again throws another punch, this one Nobunaga avoids fairly simply. Amada then performs some utterly impractical sweep with his spear that seems to stagger Nobunaga, even if for the moment.

In that moment he grabs him, forcing him to the ground. Nobunaga worms out of that position, kicking Amada squarely before sliding underneath him, emerging from the other side and stabbing Amada's left leg with his katana.

"You're not the sort of person who should be tampering with Death… You've got its stink all over you, but you're not fit to screw with other people's lives."

Nobunaga is stunned for a moment before he simply laughs.

"Laugh all you want… You think you've got a pretty good grasp on life and death…"

Suddenly, Kala Nemi seems to burst open from the inside.

And from within emerges the face of Death – the same face I've been faced with multiple times. The face of Death I've nearly killed myself to suppress.

Amada smiles. "But _this _son of a bitch – he'll run fucking _circles_ around you."

Death lets out a sharp cry before charging straight ahead, readying its katana to pierce Nobunaga.

"_Palladion!_" Nobunaga calls. A Persona taking the shape of some sort of metallic maiden with a massive shield appears before him – the shield is sturdy enough to block the katana's thrust, but the follow up from Amada's spear staggers him. And in that moment, Amada once again plunges the spear into him, ripping it out with as much force as possible.

"You've got some nerve… Using her Persona like that." Amada growls as he counters a rather feeble counterattack from Nobunaga with his spear, tripping the angel and stabbing him through the thigh.

Nobunaga escapes by ripping out the spear himself and backs off, making another swing with his katana. But the face of death meets his swing with a swing of his own, leaving Nobunaga open for another swing.

But this time Amada misses and Nobunaga takes to the air, plunging downward with his own katana, piercing through the face of death, who promptly shattered into a million pieces.

But on his final descent, Amada claimed another gash, piercing him through the stomach. Letting go of the spear, Amada waits for Nobunaga to hit the ground and instantly follows up with a left hook, staggering the angel once more, this time allowing him time to recover.

Nobunaga laughs through his doubtlessly excruciating pain as he slowly tears the spear out of his stomach. "You have to understand by now… I can't die! You can't win, no matter how hard you try!"

"That might be true, but I can still kick your ass until you run away with your tail between your legs, can't I?"

Nobunaga had no immediate response. "It's your own funeral, Amada-kun." He eventually said rather quietly. "You didn't have to come back, you know. You could've run. You could've lived, perhaps even regrouped and come back stronger in our next battle… But why? Why return for the man that killed your mother and some warm body you know nothing about? Don't you have a larger goal to accomplish?"

"That might be the case…" For a moment I could hear it in his voice – Amada was wavering... But his gaze fixates on the masked angel. "But if I let this continue, I might as well die. It's all because of people like you – I'm sick of watching people like you act like you rule the world."

"Oh…?"

"There are so many people in this world that are pieces of shit. Pieces of shit that get to live even though far better people throw themselves away to protect them. Even now with King Leo's totalitarian bullshit in effect, the country is still sixty percent shithole. The strong still prey on the weak, the weak who give their all are eclipsed by the strong who knock them down every chance they get – it's an endless cycle. Only now no one wants to recognize it. And here you are, killing Persona users, even after everything we've gone through to get where we are."

"And what does that make me?"

"You're as much a piece of shit as everyone else. People important to me died so I could be here – I'm not going to just throw my life away. So why fight? Just recently I remembered – I remembered I had this power to defy all the pieces of shit. And I'll kill 'em all, starting with you."

Nobunaga laughs. "So _that's _your noble mission? Erase half the world? Free humanity from its own confines? Make those who are fit to rule take command? How very anarchistic of you, Amada-kun… It seems I was right after all…!"

Nobunaga throws the spear at Amada with lightning speed – the impact would've probably killed him instantly, but Amada manages to avoid it. Nobunaga is open for a counterattack, but with no weapon Amada is defenseless.

He attempts to reach for the spear, but Nobunaga sees his opening and takes it. He lunges at Amada with what appeared to be a scythe.

I see it happen all too quickly.

Amada grabs the spear at the same moment that Nobunaga lowers the scythe. But in that moment there was a flash – a very brief flash.

A flash of their Personas, lunging at each other at the same time.

The face of death sent Nobunaga flying as the armored maiden that served as Nobunaga's Persona launched Amada into the air. Nobunaga recovers mid-air and leaps, discarding the scythe and readying his feudal katana.

On his descent, Amada anticipates and attack from Nobunaga. With a very swift movement, he readies his spear and successfully manages to block the stab entirely by some miracle. But Nobunaga swings once again, this time producing the wave of darkness. With no way to truly block it, Amada is hit squarely, sending him spiraling towards the ground.

Nobunaga readies his katana for another plunge. The face of death appears to counter him, but the steel maiden nullifies the attack with ease, giving Nobunaga a clear shot at a still recovering Amada.

I almost considered doing something. There was no way Amada was going to survive that attack. There simply wasn't enough room for error for him to esacpe that attack. But I was still completely immobile – despite having never been stabbed in the chest in the first place, I was still experiencing the pain.

And in that moment, an axe came flying, seemingly out of nowhere, slamming into Nobunaga at an incredibly high speed, finding a home in the side of his head. Nobunaga was dragged off with it, slamming into the ground headfirst.

Off to the side I could see him – Shinjiro was standing there, bleeding profusely, his evoker cocked and ready to shoot.

My eyes widen. There was no way he could be in any condition to fire that thing, could he?

"A-Aragaki…" I tried to speak, but the pain swelling in my throat was still too intense.

"I don't owe you anything." Amada speaks up.

"Right… Whatever you say, Ken." Shinjiro grunts. It seems he still had the energy left to play off Amada's complaint.

But suddenly, before any of us had the time to recover, a loud and shrill scream echoed through the void.

"_You bastard…! My face…! My face…! You've destroyed my perfect face…!_"

Nobunaga had landed a good deal away from us, but when he let out that shriek, the entire void shook as if an earthquake had just passed through.

A brilliant flash of light spilled across the void, and the moment it faded a massive fire formed where Nobunaga had landed.

From the fire he emerged, clutching his face, trying to keep the black ooze from spilling. His grin had been shattered and now appeared to be a mouth with broken teeth. The human shape of his head was beginning to twist as the black ooze continued to seep from the gaps in the mask.

Clutching his head in pain, he continues to scream. It sounded ever so excruciating, although what he'd put many others through was likely far worse.

Eventually he released his head, arcing backward and screaming to the sky. The black ooze seemed to rupture and was turning to smoke – it was as if his head were smoldering. And judging from the curdled cry he let out, it must've felt that way.

He swings his left arm, stretching it out to the side.

"_I…I want to kill you… I don't care who you are or what you've done… I, Rengoku Oda Nobunaga will tear you apart, limb from limb, digit from digit…! I will make you fear death a thousand fold!" _

A massive scythe, perhaps ten feet long, appeared at his side. The blade itself was massive, and could easily tear through a mountain bear in a single swing – the sheer size of it was enough to make me understand that what we'd nearly died fighting just now was only Nobunaga's tame power.

We'd made him mad, for lack of a better phrase. And so things look bleak…

"Yeah, I'm not even gonna try blocking that thing." Amada spoke obnoxiously with his state of awe apparent in his voice.

"What do we do…?" I murmured.

"Ken… If we find a way out, you need to take Naoto and run." Shinjiro was still dead set on using himself as bait – if the time came I'd still talk him out of it, although he'd only made it through his last suicide attempt just barely.

"I got it… But the problem is –"

"_None of you shall live…! All shall perish at the hands of my quiet fury!" _

"Doesn't sound very quiet to me…" Ken apparently found it fit to taunt Nobunaga – not a particularly smart move, mind you.

But the moment Nobunaga was going to lash out at us, he was stopped in his tracks.

A small, white void opened up before us – and through that void stepped a woman with blonde hair, wearing a black dress with an equally as black hat. One look at her told me that she wasn't human – her eyes glowed like the moon and her skin was deathly pale, too pale for human skin.

Nobunaga gasps, coughing heavily in the process. "E-Elizabeth…you…"

The woman walks towards him, tapping the scythe in his hand, causing it to disappear entirely. She lightly touches the gaps in the mask and by some sort of magic they seal themselves up. Nobunaga's breathing is almost instantly less labored and he appears to calm down for the most part. He falls silent.

"This has gone on long enough…I've already acquired your final soul." She speaks in a rather monotonous voice.

"A-Ah…Very well then…" He then clears his throat. "I'm afraid our bout ends here… Consider yourselves the most fortunate of the fortunate…" With some issue, he stumbles through the white void and only the woman remains.

"I apologize for my master's temper tantrum… You see, Nobunaga-sama has a tendency to get rather… upset when he sustains a bit too much damage."

"Who are you? And who is he, really?" I speak, pausing several times to wince from the pain talking caused.

"I'm afraid I can't tell you. At any rate…" The woman apparently named Elizabeth snaps her fingers and the dark void around us vanishes completely, leaving us once again stranded in the wreckage of southern Nagano. The Shadows had vanished entirely and only the woman and the white portal behind her remained. "I must be off… We shall likely meet again, as Babel is doubtlessly your destination."

"You mean the Shinjuku Tower? Why would we want to go there?" Amada questions.

The woman smiles. "Your destiny lies there… Your fate is in the cards – you can't escape it, even if you wanted to."

"That's a load of crap." Shinjiro interjects. "But why _would _we want to walk into a place like that?"

"If you wish to preserve the world you once knew, or even if you wish to make a new one in its place, that is where you must go… If you carry on like this, Death's looming shadow will drive you all mad… I believe you are all already aware of that fact, however."

"…" Amada became downcast. It seemed that despite his degree of control over the face of death, he still couldn't stop it from eventually taking him.

Shinjiro is a bit of a mystery – I haven't seen him call upon that monster before, but he likely has.

And as for myself –

I was already too close to the edge. I had to keep taking that medication or simply never use my Persona. But if things continue the way they are, how long could I possibly keep doing that? I could kill and kill, but if I'm forced to call upon Yamato Takeru…

Who can say what will happen?

The woman was right… There was no way we could just keep on fighting like this – even Amada, with his own apparent goals, is limited in the same way that we are.

None of us had any response for her – the same line of thought was going through all three of us.

"Well then… I must be off."

"Wait." Shinjiro stops her. "You're avoiding our questions… Start talking, or –"

Her eyes squint as she gives Shinjiro a rather condescending look. "Unlike Nobunaga-sama I have no reserves with killing any of you… There's only one of you humans that I seem to think anything of these days anyhow." She draws attention to the large grimoire that until now she had tucked under her arm. "Step away and heal your wounded, or step forward and engage in a fight that you have no chance of winning. It's your choice."

Shinjiro offered no further protest. The woman turned, offering nothing in response, and vanished into the white portal which disappeared behind her.

"…Naoto." Shinjiro calls out to me.

"…?"

"You're not getting involved in this."

"Because you say so?"

"Because you're not a part of this whole mess."

Shinjiro had probably realized what I had a long time ago.

Nobunaga didn't kill Amada. He didn't even kill Shinjiro, for whatever reason. With the sort of power he clearly possessed, he could've killed them both without any issue whatsoever. Shinjiro was even stranded in that dark void during the time I hesitated to act.

But Nobunaga – not only had he apparently thought Amada was dead for certain, but he had given Shinjiro both the time to recover and the opening he needed to break the mask.

But as far as I was concerned – he was going to rip me to pieces. I would've died right then and there if Amada hadn't appeared. Nobunaga has no reasons for letting me live – at least from what I could tell.

My life was more at risk than the others' were. But even then, could I really just stand down now?

I have to keep fighting, after all. I have to keep fighting to reach the solution I need to find. Nobunaga knows about that town – he knows about me, about my friends, and everything that happened. He likely knows what happened and why I seem to be the only one who made it out alive.

I needed to find the answer. Even though I was afraid of dying, I couldn't hesitate to search for it.

"I am now, aren't I?" I offered no more words past that point. The tension in the air had subsided and I finally relaxed, and so I began to lose consciousness.

That would be my driving force. That would be my new purpose. I had, after all this time, found some glimmer of hope. Even though it was with a most fearsome enemy, the truth still existed… But did I have the capacity to find it?

I had to know. I wanted to know. I'd die if I couldn't know.

So for now it's okay if I have to withstand the pain.

It's okay if I come close to death a lot.

It's okay – as long as I keep looking forward, there might be some meaning.

_Hope keeps my heart aflame.  
__Hope keeps my soul from breaking.  
__Hope keeps my body moving.  
__Hope is a part of me.  
__There is hope in my heart.  
_… _But even then, my heart is empty._

* * *

_The Great Seal  
__January 13__th__, 2014_

It was just a game. I was just searching – searching for that fourth Persona user.

But all three of them… At the same time? How could I have gone through that without killing them?

I stumble out of the portal and land onto the faceless surface beneath me, still writhing in pain as my plethora of mortal wounds very slowly and very painfully begin to close up.

I stared out into the space in front of me – just a few feet away, suspended in the air was a soul. And not just any soul – the soul of a superhuman…

At a staggering pace I manage to use my entire upper body and move myself across the floor and towards it. Reaching out with a shaky hand, I quickly wharf down the soul like a homeless man who hasn't eaten in months.

In a matter of seconds I'm filled with the essence of Margaret, the last Velvet Room attendant.

"Ah…" I sigh with relief. "Margaret… Your past… Your final moments… You lived such a pampered life, didn't you? You lusted after that human just because he was a change of pace…? Ah, but you weren't as lucky as your sister, were you? No matter… Become Nobunaga… Become part of a whole, complete entity…!" Margaret's essence fills my body and my regeneration quadruples in speed. In a matter of moments, I am nearly fully reconstructed.

Elizabeth appears behind me as my mask slowly reconstructs itself the black ooze spilling out of it hardens once more and my face once again takes upon its magnificent form.

"I've fulfilled my end of the deal." She speaks plainly.

"So you have… I am still in no condition to act, but…"

"You will fulfill your half." She states again.

"Of course I will… But I will need time."

"I have the next millennia to spend…" With that, she walks over to me and helps me up off the floor. While the pain was mostly gone, my body was still completely numb. She carries me over to the large structure in the distance rather slowly – it seemed that despite the nature of our partnership, she still had some respect for the wounded.

"…Tell me. What has become of that dwarf?"

"He was gone when I arrived… It seems that they believed that he was the target."

"Hah… That man was always far too full of himself…"

"Do you think he will return?"

"Of _course _he will. He's likely plotting as we speak… But more importantly, my dear… _we _must plot for the second act."

"What needs to be done?"

"You wish to see him live once more, correct?"

"More than anything."

I stare up at the man, tied to the massive seal suspended in the center of this space. Now nothing more than a torso and a skull, the man's human body wastes away – but even then the seal does not falter for even a moment.

He is a human boy. But even then, the facts still stand. This boy became a sacrifice for all of humanity four years ago. He became their messiah who saved them from their ignorance. He is the one entity in this world that has the capacity to end my life permanently.

And yet here I was, about to save him.

I now had the power to restore him to his former self. I now had the capacity to bring back the dead.

Taking that into account… I wonder – will I become stronger than him one day? Will I be able to stand against him and hope for victory? Could I overpower he who defeated the one who could not be defeated?

I had no way of knowing. But a promise is a promise… And so I had to do what was expected of me.

"Then I shall begin the process here… I've seen enough of that world, at least for now. Everything is still in order. But while I toil away on your beloved's soul… You must look into something for me. Sound fair?"

"What must I do?"

And so I informed Elizabeth of the next phase of the plan… Hm? You want me to tell _you_? Now why would I do a thing like that?

* * *

_January 31__st__, 2014_

"You've been sleeping for so long… It's time to wake up."

My eyes shoot open. I hear a voice in my head, but before another moment passes it is gone.

All I see is white. Above me is nothing more than a vast, white space. There are no clouds, there is no sky – there is just a white covering to an equally as white field of equally as white flowers that seemed to stretch off into the distance.

I stand. I know not why I had arrived in such a place, only that I had been somewhere else entirely only a few moments ago.

But was that place even real? What if that place was nothing more than a dream? That could certainly explain it…

In a few moments I suddenly remember.

Nagano.

I was in Nagano, a part of the capitol that composed the new world. I was there, searching for leads and resolving pertinent matters.

That place was certainly very real.

But here I am, in this place.

What was this place?

I felt like I should know.

"Ah, that's right." I whisper. I slowly kneel, placing my hands together in prayer. "I call upon thee, thee who sleeps in the land of the dead." My voice is still very quiet. I mostly proceed off of instinct, but I can to some degree remember what this place was.

"Ah, so you remembered this time as well… Very good."

I hear that voice again.

I blink my eyes. And the field of pale white flowers vanishes. I am now kneeling before a pale white tombstone – or rather a pale white slab that blocked the path to a pale white tombstone, built into the side of a pale white mountain, standing alone amongst a vast pale white emptiness under the same pale white sky.

I raise my hands to the sky.

"I offer nothing." I speak rather curtly.

"You who have been named the seventeenth… Your service is offering enough for this one."

"The name, if you would."

"Ah…Inaba, correct?"

"So you remembered this time as well…"

"But of course… This space has no effect on one such as I. But recalling your visits to this place without fail, walking amongst this begotten land without going mad – you are doubtlessly worthy of your title."

"My name is my strength. Without it I am nothing."

"You aren't, if you choose to believe so."

"So then, when I return, will that still stand? Will I still have the choice?"

"Perhaps. If you can remember that you have the choice."

"I doubt such a choice can achieve this absurd goal."

"Is that so factual that you don't recognize the sheer power those with the potential possess?"

"You did not witness them first hand. They could not defeat the Composite Angel or so much as wound him… They fight with human death as their weapon and hope for victory. They use spears and axes to pierce the gods and hide their power for fear of death... They are too human."

"But that humanity is what makes them unique, is it not?"

"Tell me – why must there be four?"

"Because it is destiny. It is tradition. The four of the house Kuzunoha, the four of the World War – there have always been four, and so there always shall be four."

"But why in the hands of such weak creatures?"

"They are all that remains. They fight for their own ends – of those three, the boy fights for revenge against all who oppose him. The man fights for the sake of fighting. The woman fights to reach out to a truth she can never find. They all fight for inane, imperfect, and pointless reasons. But they fight for _different _reasons. They are unique, even though they all fear death. And unlike you or me, they have the capacity to void their fate."

"But how is such a thing possible?"

"It isn't. Which is why humans are so fascinating."

"I can't understand."

"That's because you aren't as I am."

"...Will I come to understand?"

"In time… But now you must go. You must fulfill your mission, Seventeenth. Your justice shall be absolute – now go, and do not falter again."

I understood the task at hand.

I understood, yet I didn't want to accomplish it.

I wasn't afraid.

I instead was skeptical.

I didn't believe it – not at first, at any rate.

I didn't believe humans were capable of the things I'd heard they could do.

I wanted to know for certain.

Was that capacity real? Was there hope for this cesspool of a world after all?

I had to know. And so I would search for the answer.

I, Raidou Kuzunoha the Seventeenth, will never rest until that answer is found.

* * *

_**Author's Note**_

And so concludes this chapter. I can no longer promise weekly updates, but in all likelihood it shouldn't take all that long to get the next one up. So until then, keep on reading.


	6. Euphemism

_**Author's Note**_

For those of you who were caught in the passing of Hurricane Sandy on the east coast of the US, I sincerely hope you made it through without much difficulty. I know at this point there are still close to a million customers without power, so I hope that for those of you who now have to sit through a blizzard in the dark the damage is minimal.

Alright, so let's get down to business. Now that we've gotten essentially all of the introductions out of the way (for real this time), it's time to get to business – by letting you all into the mind of King Leo, whose identity you should probably have figured out by the end of this chapter (I'd actually like to hear your guesses in the reviews, if it's not too much trouble).

Another thing to note that is of extreme importance. **The M Rating for this fic is REALLY going to come into play for this chapter. **A little bit more than just language (but no smut, seeing as how that ruins just about any good story) as well. It's only apparent at the very end, but when you get there you'll figure it out.

One last detail – despite how many characters show up, I'd like to once again remind you all that there are **no OCs** **whatsoever**. Anyhow, without any further delay, enjoy the most information packed chapter to date.

* * *

_**1.5 Euphemism**_

_6:40 AM, Shinjuku Tower  
__February 1__st__, 2014_

King Leo. That's me. The number one fiendish dictator in history. Or at least in _my _history.

At one point, I thought I was indestructible. I thought that I was badass enough that nothing could ever get under my skin or deter me in any way whatsoever. I figured I had the guts to scare everyone around me shitless for hours on end on a day to day basis.

And I was right. About some of that, at least.

But the moment she opened her eyes – goddamn, what the hell was going on with me? I mean really, how many bitches have I slapped? More than there are stars in the damn sky, that's how many. But even then –

It was a bit surprising. I was actually wondering if she was gonna do anything at all, at least at first. I thought she was defective or something like that. We almost dumped the project and transferred our resources to our American pal. But after about a month of prep work she actually woke up – and _damn_, did she have some of the most bewitching eyes I've ever seen…

Although what was even more peculiar was the moment she started talking.

I was expecting a very robotic voice… I mean, for fuck's sake, she's a machine, isn't she? But she started talking with some sort of fake Osaka accent – it was hysterical. I'm fairly sure that by the time I was done with my laughing fit half of the scientists had pissed themselves with fear since my laughing fits usually indicate that someone's gonna get their head ripped off their shoulders, but even so, none of us really took her seriously at first.

I'd like to emphasis the 'at first' part. Eventually, after we managed to figure out how to keep her from going out of control and killing everyone in the tower, she seemed to be a bit ditzy, if not anything else. She was rather dazed and didn't seem all that much like a fighting machine, let alone one that wasted an entire city in a matter of minutes.

But it came to the point where we found the off switch to that Osaka accent. Or rather, we figured out how to seemingly turn off her personality. We wouldn't be able to get away with doing that for much longer, as it would seem that the biggest bonus such a woman would grant pretty much revolves around her personality remaining intact, but we had to at least test her default combat capabilities against our Shadows.

We ended up dumping her in a pit with a very particular Shadow to see just how much she was worth. You see, not _every _Shadow joined our ranks after they were let into the cities. Many of them were simply too rabid to control, and it came to the point where we had to contain many of them.

This one in particular nearly flattened a skyscraper in Osaka. It took several dozen men to imprison it and nearly a hundred Shadows to get it weak enough to transport. Overall, I probably spent close to twenty million yen to keep him locked up.

But our iron maiden here – it took her the good part of four and a half minutes to complete waste the fucker. Almost immediately afterward, every scientist in the room, being the spineless cowards that they are, wanted to scrap the project. Which was why I started dumping yen by the millions into repairing and upgrading her.

When the time came to take her apart, I saw it – the heart of the machine, a very particular and rather mysteriously crafted device that the Kirijo group had somewhat miraculously developed in a very short span of time. At the time, the head of the group had apparently been funded by the government and was probably pulling tax money at the same time from his contacts with the Yakuza.

Right now I am the government. And even then we still can't replicate it. No matter how much scrutiny that tiny piece of hardware was put through, there was no indication of what it had been built with. Hell, half of the material apparently wasn't even built from known elements. The blueprints for the machines were lost a long time ago and on top of that the only other iron maiden like ours in existence was wasted fairly recently. So we can't start building these things from scratch. Although considering how there were only two left in existence after a certain event twenty years ago and even before that the only surviving mechs were allegedly the best of the best, we probably wouldn't even want to. Mass producing perfection wouldn't make my forces any more perfect – it's more likely that our designs wouldn't be perfect anyway.

Eventually, after testing her motor functions a few more times, we managed to figure out how her movement was not only incredibly elegant but extremely superhuman. It would seem that the alloy her limbs were built from was constructed from extremely expensive material – material that skyrocketed in price in the last decade. Materials that were hard enough to come by regardless of how much influence I held in Japan.

The more impossible it seemed to be to replicate a machine, the more unique she seemed to become. It came to the point where I came to a rather self explanatory conclusion.

This machine was doubtlessly one of a kind. Ironically, that made her closer to being human than to being a machine. The way she was now, she held more personality than the entirety of Japan put together. That was why I decided to cease our combat testing and woke her up.

I'd seen her when she ripped apart those Shadows. But her eyes – they were never as lively as they were the moment the heart started beating again and we let her regain consciousness.

She woke in a very relaxed state. She wasn't under any degree of stress despite what we'd done to her while she was in stand-by mode and seemed completely harmless. Rather quickly, she started speaking, talking to the scientists in a rather rude tone. Of course she was only really asking where she was and what she was doing there. She honestly seemed more afraid than anything else – her eyes betrayed her sharp tongue, at any rate.

All the while she seemed to be well aware of my presence there. But for some odd reason she never seemed to acknowledge me or ask questions about who I was. But her eyes clearly met mine several times, although she tried to maintain as little eye contact as possible. Was I really that intimidating? I damn well better be.

Eventually, the scientists saw it fit to test her intellect. They started essentially quizzing her on various things, many of which were related to very obscure topics.

"The year soccer was incorporated into the Olympic games." A scientist would read off rather listlessly.

"Trick question. 1900." She would respond with little hesitation. I wondered why she was complying – she wasn't attempting to show off, was she? Or was she simply inclined to answer questions? Was part of her programming interfering with her artificially implanted personality?

"The distance between the Earth and the Sun."

"One hundred and fifty million kilometers."

"The least developed peninsula in Japanese territory."

"The Izu Peninsula."

"History and science seem to work… Now to test the information we've had you download. Give me seven developed towns in Japanese prefectures unaffected by assimilation or the Harumi-cho Revolution."

"Ando. Yuzawa. Kanan. Kannami. Chizu. Daisen. Inaba."

"...!"

"…King Leo, is something amiss?"

"That last one. That's not a town, is it?" I pointed out the last name she had given – Inaba. The scientist quickly searched his database of choice for confirmation and seemed a bit confused. Of course the girl in question seemed rather confused herself – she wasn't sure why I had suddenly interrupted her.

"Hm…Evidently it isn't. Must be some error in our information."

"…Hey, uh…Whatever we're calling you." I tried to get the girl's attention, which seemed to work out quite well. She more or less decided that she was the one I was addressing. I can see it in her eyes – despite her brief flaring she was still afraid. She was waiting for my question rather expectantly. "What year were you built?"

"…I can't tell you." She speaks slightly more softly. It's as if the dim, yet clearly present fire within her seemed to dissipate when I asked that question.

"And why is that?"

"…I don't remember."

"That's not a statistical possibility." The scientist pointed out. He had a point – her brain was computerized and so information couldn't simply be forgotten. But then again…

"Tell me – you've at least got a name, don't you? Or can you not remember that either."

"…Labrys." She barely whispered, apparently hesitant to share her name but too afraid not to.

Labrys, huh? Not a very typical name. But it wasn't a bad name, at least.

"Labrys, you can go back to sleep now, if you'd like." I spoke almost kindly. The scientist had a bit of a double take – he certainly hadn't expected me of all people to give the poor girl a bit of a break. But Labrys – she was almost visually ecstatic. She nodded her head a bit too quickly as she visually tried to contain her sudden burst of emotion.

It seemed that she wanted nothing more than to rest – she was just afraid that she was going to continue to be experimented upon. She was so eager to simply go through whatever we threw at her just so it could all be past her. She was far too human for her own good – but even then, she was clearly capable of carnage at such extreme levels.

"O-Okay." She stammered, her accent briefly leaking into her speech for a few instants as she hurried to her coffin. She shut her eyes and in a matter of moments she was locked into place and shut down. She was a machine, yet she craved such concepts as sleep. How peculiar… But what was even more peculiar was her stored data – and the name of that town. A name I never thought I'd hear ever again.

There was something even more to her, underneath the already well hidden depth she possessed.

I was a bit _too _interested, if I'm being honest here.

"S-Sir, is this for the best?" The scientist objected to my actions, as was usual. They never learned, only because when it came to experimentation I gave them far too much leeway with the whole 'you piss me off your head comes off' thing.

"Like it or not, she's human enough that she needs rest… We did enough damage with those battle trials. If we somehow _break _her, not only will we be a few billion _yen_ short, but we'll be a few dozen _staff members _short if it ever comes to that… You get the idea." I gave him a very typical grin – the grin that instilled fear into so many.

He swallowed hard, nodding his head in response. All it took was a little scare and everything would be under control – that was how things were around here.

Labrys would have her hard earned break from her suddenly imposed situation. But once it ended, she'd be under my supervision. And being under my supervision meant one of about three things.

She'd almost expressed gratitude only a short while ago. But she'll soon learn to fear me like the rest.

* * *

_8:33 PM, Shinjuku Tower  
__February 2__nd__, 2014_

There was a time when I really loved the power. A time where I simply felt like stomping over the worthless just for the sake of doing it. There was a time where I was just a complete prick, with nothing more than power going to my head. I had control – a sort of control that I'd never had before. A sort of control that I probably longed for some time in the past. It was a sort of control that was so intoxicating that by the time I realized that I was knee-deep in the ignorance I was trying to erase I had to start killing people to get it all out of my system.

At one point, believe it or not, I had about as much influence in the world as a kid kicking a can on a sidewalk. And being as worthless as I was, I realized there was no way I could go up the ladder. I simply had to keep sinking, until I could go no lower, and possibly find another way out. But no matter how low I sank nothing seemed to change. There was always a new low – a new low that was distinctively more shameful than the last one.

There were so many people who were screwed out of their lives. And many of them were so distraught that they'd go so far as to kill themselves. People that were wastes of space only because there were those above them that made it so. There was a point in time where I was almost one of these people – but everything changed. How? Well, for the sake of being an ass, I won't explain any of it. Something happened – something happened and before I knew it, a large sum of money was in my possession.

So what was there to do? I had a small fraction of what this world recognized as power – I had part of a larger whole. A whole that I despised. A whole that I wanted to erase.

At one point I came to understand things – things that I'd never have even thought about in the past. Through constant reflection I came to question the world around me on a fundamental level. I taught myself the basics of Chaos Theory, mathematical and otherwise. It came to the point where I knew exactly how society managed to maintain itself.

And so I knew how to destroy it.

In the end it became incredibly clear – how does one declare mutiny? With numbers. With people willing to fight for one's cause.

I took the hopeless, the worthless men and women of Japan's corroding society. I turned them into monsters. And with true power at my fingertips I laid waste to the world I'd grown to hate so much.

I'd taken those that were deemed unfit and pit them against those that ran the world. And the former emerged victorious. And so an entire nation was under my command.

The masses – those that have the true power in this world – were the key. Those that follow the law like sheep are the ones with the true power in society. They comprise society in its entirety, with only a small percentage consisting of those that are in power. Such has been a fact since the dawn of society. Revolution and revolt is possible due to this simple fact – and so, by taking the masses under my wing, giving them a face to follow and a sense of false patriotism to rally behind, and sending them into senseless battle, I became the one on top. I became the one to look down and torment those that tried to torment me.

It was only then – only at the top of the ladder, with my power overriding my sense of purpose, did I truly understand. I understood an even simpler truth, a truth responsible for concepts akin to Chaos Theory and social anarchy. Humans are, simply put, worthless creatures with more potential than any other. Humans are untapped fountains of intellect and power that cannot be controlled or even managed.

And so it became clear to me – I had risen to the top. I had seen all levels of society, from the very bottom all the way to the highest peak. I had been part of every level of social hierarchy at one point or another. I had taken power even though I had started with nothing – but given the nature of this world my miraculous rise to fame and wealth is not unique in the slightest. Would another not do the same? Would the cycle not repeat? Would those that supported me turn against me without a second thought?

I had power. I had the capacity to rule. And so I knew what had to be done.

I struck a deal with a devil – the same devil that earned me my fortune. And so in exchange for unending power I sacrificed an entire nation to ultimately suffer the same fate as that place. The humans would follow me like sheep. And instead of giving into human vices I would simply re-define the vices myself.

Those with power in the past have simply been foolish. Such fools cause war and conflict. Such fools ultimately lose their power when their human desires conquer them and their judgment is clouded with greed, lust, pride, and above all else sloth. But I was different – I was superior to all that had come before me. I could see the world the way it was from the very top the same way I could see it from the very bottom. My rule would be not only perfect but absolute. I would reshape the world – and in doing so save it from humanity forever.

And it would be glorious. A world of Shadows. A world where humans succumb to their flawed nature in the most brilliant display of human folly possible. A world where I would simply rule. A world with no dimension. A world where life simply went on. A world that I could look upon and truly relish in. A world that suffers my fate a thousand fold.

I regulate the world. I control human desires through propaganda and the masses are none the wiser. And the only ones who _wouldn't _succumb to such folly would simply go mad with isolation. The young respond with ignorant fear, the old respond with obedience. The young become the old, and the cycle repeats until there are simply no more young to grow old. Political laws would soon become natural law. The fundamentality of human intellect would be warped and distorted to extremes. It would be a perfect world. A world that I would rule.

I would create a world of truly perfect creatures. Perfect creatures that once, long ago, were referred to as Messians. I would create that world - a world of Messians. And so that was the name of my beautiful society – the Messian Order.

It was a work in progress, in case you couldn't tell. Only because mere echoes of that old world, the world that was slowly fading away, remained.

It was when I thought about those echoes that bits and pieces of my old life came back to me in painful bursts. These burst haunt my dreams and plague my nightmares even more deeply, although my mental condition is alleviated by my tendencies to beat the crap out of people for no apparent reason. There was a method to it all, even if there weren't many who thought so.

There was a time once – a time many years ago when I came to a crossroads in my life. I took a path and ended up biting off more than I could chew. There was a light at the end of the tunnel, though – in that town that was no more. The town that Labrys had somehow retained knowledge of. Inaba – the faceless countryside town that ultimately became the dry run for my Messian project, even if I'd never so much as entertained the idea back then.

Inaba was erased – not only from the face of the Earth, but from the memories and records of all those around me. I could recall only because of my circumstances in that town – but Labrys could as well. Why she could was still a complete mystery, but I'd probably find out in due time.

Inaba holds a certain place in my heart – a place in my heart that I'd like to rip out before the memory relapses it caused drove me off the deep end. But even then I had to accept that town for what it was. It was a place that changed my life, rather permanently at that. But even then I still hate it – only because of a man. A man who acted as if he knew the answer to life and went about enlightening everyone around him.

I despise that man. So much so that I've forgotten his name. But I hated him even then. I hated him and wanted him dead. So it made sense that he was my best friend, right?

The circumstances in that town were so situational that they might as well have been unique. Ironically enough for how simply plain and uninteresting that town was, I doubt that such circumstances could be come across anywhere else in the world. But the more I seem to dwell on why things were the way they were, the more trouble I had dealing with the relapse that plagued me like a bad itch that would _never _go away under any circumstances. It didn't help that the devil I've alluded to several times seems to want to rub it in the best she can.

I have no regrets about what I'm going to do. I'm technically destroying not only my heritage but essentially giving a well placed fuck-you to some people that probably _don't _deserve what's coming to them. But then those people will rise above their suppressors and they will simply become that which they once despised.

The strong will continue to devour the weak as society dictates. Only now the strong are those that are simply part of the mass of ignorance while the weak are those that aren't. But as mathematical chaos theory dictates, there will come a time where in my controlled environment the weak will fall out one at a time as their strong desires for social anarchy will give way and collapse under the stress and pressure of isolation. In the end there will be no weak to be devoured by the strong. There will be all powerful entities that have no comprehension of their true power. There will be the strong who are simply unaware of their strength. There will be no concept of strong or weak, nor will there be any concept of right and wrong or difference and sameness.

Even now this change takes place. Deviation itself has been redefined, but one day, after the butterfly effect sets in, deviation will be purged entirely. Humanity will corner itself with its own intellect – intellect that would gladly free them from their state of invincible ignorance, yet intellect that is completely disregarded. As a false sense of normalcy and social collectiveness become humanity's only escape from that intellect, it will gradually and collectively lose its drive to exist. It will start to see between the lines. It will simply follow social norms until that point – the point where their psychological condition is so neglected that when faced with their reality, their egos will fall apart. And with human ego gone, only the Shadow will remain. And by the chaos theory, that collapse will be uniform – one after the other will suffer the same fate, until there are none that remain.

It's a pretty fucked up plan, I know. But find someone with something better. I dare you.

Humanity's fallout is the future. That future is worth dying for. So I'll die before my ambitions are fucked over.

I don't expect you to understand. In truth, I don't really understand all of it myself. After all, it's impossible to know why we we're here on this earth to begin with.

I found myself, every step of the way, thinking about what little of my past I could recall. I had no qualms with living in this world in the past. Looking back on myself, I was a fool. But even then, I could live in such a world with no reserves. Even now I can't understand it, only because I'm far more enlightened to how the clock ticks these days, but still –

It wears away at me. The idea that I was once a sheep among so many others, living in a world dictated to us by shells of democracy and social unity, was so frightening that I saw Inaba more as a symbol of my detrimental past than something I'd _want _to remember. I wanted nothing more than to forget it all, but my nightmares were always plagued by it – and that man. The man that I owed everything and nothing to at the same time.

I found myself in bed; sleeping in quite possibly the most luxuriously designed master bedroom in Japanese history. Of course even when asleep my mind was always mulling over how badass I am now and how much of a cunt I was years ago. I had to start supervising Labrys later this evening, so I had figured I would get some rest now. Of course I normally slept restlessly because of all the crap I've already mentioned up to this point.

I can feel rustling next to me – oh, right. _She _was here, wasn't she?

She stretches, apparently having been asleep next to me the entire time. Having noticed my wakening, she threw an arm over me and pulled me towards her, pressing up against me as tightly as she could. Her eyes open and she gives me that look – that mischievous look that could easily pass for a lustful gaze. The average moron would probably see that – but looking into her eyes I saw her for what she really was.

"Hm…" She lightly moans as opposed to yawning. It wasn't a habit of hers – she had no habits. Every movement she made, every sound she made – all of it was completely intentional. This was the face she tried to maintain around me – the face of a stupid woman who had no priorities other than fucking.

It was a face she's killed many a man with. But of course the fact that I'm still alive suggests that I was an exception.

"…Is my king finally awake?" She speaks in a very carefully selected voice. Her tone is perfectly seductive, as perfect as an actress who's practiced it a thousand times. She lightly licks her lips, but slowly enough as to let the effect she was aiming for sink in.

I sigh in response.

Having gotten nowhere with that, she tries to default to physical contact. Her hands linger to one of mine and she slowly inches my left hand to her body. Her plan is to run my hand over her flawless skin and about as far below as it could go – a tactic that works wonders on the average moron.

"You _can't_ be in the mood for _more _sex, can you?" I point out something fairly obvious.

She frowns. "You're no fun."

"Funny. A few hours ago you had a different opinion."

She almost laughs, but settles for yet another seductive grin. "Are you _sure _you don't want to go another round?"

"I've got crap to do. You can go trick one of the scientists if you really feel like it."

She moans in complaint. "But none of them are hot enough for me…" She pouts.

"Enough…I've got places to be." I wasn't particularly in the mood for her usual sexual banter. I sat up, but as I was about to move away from the bed, she slowly wraps her arms around my chest.

"You're not still afraid of the dark are you?" She speaks a bit more seriously. I'd explain, but leaving this sort of stuff cryptic makes for some better surprises later on.

"Look, I'm fine. Just go back to fucking anything that moves, alright? I don't have the time to spare today."

"Hm…Fine, but I'll be back tomorrow…" She releases me, allowing me to finally stand and head towards the door.

As for who she is – the devil that granted me my fortune in exchange for sex that I wasn't supposed to be able to survive. She came to me in the form of a frail girl who begged to be loved – the fortune was simply an afterthought when I didn't perish from her supernatural capabilities that she used to feed on men to sustain her beauty and immortality.

As for why I survived? Have you ever read the first few pages of _Berserk_? _That's _how I survived. Of course at the time I wasn't nearly as badass enough, but you get the idea.

For now, I'll simply call her by her mythological title, Lilith. She has another name – two names, in fact – that I won't address right now… There's far too much that you don't understand yet.

Apparently, she took interest in me after I'd nearly killed her – and through very shady means, she acquired a large sum of money that she passed on to me. From then on, she seemingly appeared whenever she wanted. But these days, she lives in the tower because I allow her to. Evicting her wouldn't do me any good at any rate – that aside, it's not like being able to fuck a demon and live to tell the tale is a bad thing.

But Lilith aside, there was the matter of Labrys. The time had come for her to talk – I needed information from her, but on top of that I needed to find some way of manipulating her. After all, we'd only had her kill test dummies. She hadn't even killed those willingly.

I end up having the scientists leave Labrys in an actual room as opposed to having her stay in that chamber for the duration of her stay here. The lack of chairs of all things in that room pissed me off enough as it was. But all of that aside, I ended up finding Labrys wide awake, sitting up in an actual, completely normal bed.

Her expression was rather neutral – until she realized that _I _had entered her room and not some random scientist. She seemed a bit flustered – she likely didn't know exactly how to react to me. It seemed that she knew what sort of status I held in this place, and she likely figured that saying anything stupid would ensure that whatever her darkest fears were would come true. Honestly, for a machine that can tear buildings apart effortlessly, she isn't all that threatening, at least from this perspective.

I was taking a very significant risk here – the chances of her killing me outright were rather high. But she seems to be rather passive right now.

I spoke to her – I told her of her situation her in the tower. She seemed rather obedient overall. She still spoke with that clearly fake accent, but she didn't really object to anything I said to her. So then I decided to make mention of that town.

"During that little quiz show, you said something interesting."

She seemed a bit concerned once I brought that up – but the thing is, she's a killing machine. So why is she expressing such inconsistent emotions? I'd figured she'd be a cold and heartless killer, but that didn't seem to be the case at all.

"It was the name of that town, right?"

"What else do you know about that town?"

"I know it's not there anymore… But really, I just knew the name… I'm sorry, but I don't know anything else."

I sighed. Seems like she was fresh out of information to give me. How wonderful.

I told her that she would resume the testing. I mentioned that we would probably end up shutting her off if she did anything too extreme as more of a warning than anything else, but the moment I did, she had a very particular reaction.

She started to beg.

"Please, don't turn me off. I'll do what you want, alright? Just don't…Don't, please…"

She'd beg like that – it seemed that she was afraid. It was likely the same reason why she hadn't broken out immediately, although at this point she could've done so incredibly easily. Giving her such an easy to escape room was meant to prove that, and so far it has. Afraid of her murderous half, maybe? I couldn't understand exactly why, but if she was going to comply anyway, I decided to have some mercy on her.

"One last thing."

She looked at me expectantly as I tried to word this final question the right way.

"You owe me nothing. You owe the people in this building nothing. You can run away whenever you feel like. So why go through with all of this? You could even kill me right now if you wanted to. So what's your deal?"

She gave me a very unexpected answer. "You let me out of that coffin… I owe you more than enough."

And that's Labrys in a nutshell – a plethora of completely inappropriate and seemingly delusional beliefs and ideas.

Her testing finally resumed, and the more I watched her fight, the more I could understand her oddities. The more she fought, the more she exerted her human half. Watching her fight willingly – it was something else. Her performance results were skyrocketing, her overall damage output seemed to gradually increase – unlocking her true potential made her more powerful than the mindless machine ever was.

Labrys was part human – that heart, the Papillon Heart, made her something so extraordinary. She had the capacity of a human being but unlike so many of them she knew how to use it. She knew how to make the best and the fullest use of her power – she was essentially a perfect human being, more than a machine.

But what was still a mystery was her apparent lack of a Persona.

I asked her about it during one of her tests – her performance seemed to skydive almost immediately, so I never brought it up again. She never gave me a straightforward answer either, hiding behind her fake Osaka accent like a last line of defense. That was a problem she needed to resolve with herself – I'd normally get pissed off about something so inconvenient, but it wasn't like I could kill a scientist to resolve the problem instantly like usual.

Labrys continued her combat exercises for several weeks. Once her performance seemed to peak, I finally revisited her in her room.

She was not anywhere near as afraid of me has she had been during my initial visit. Although at this point it would've been strange if she still was.

Labrys agreed to the testing based off of her idea of apparently owing me something. But the constant praise I gave her for it – she felt far more comfortable with the testing in general as it went on. Why was I being so out of character and complementing her? Because she was looking to me, the figure of authority and the only person who hadn't tried to jam something into her already, for approval. Why, I hadn't the slightest clue, but it likely had to do with the fact that she'd gotten some really crazy idea in her head about me – although at this point I hope she's dropped it.

It wasn't really fake praise, either. If I had to sugarcoat things for her I'd likely have shot myself in the foot by now. But that really wasn't the case.

"Leo." She greets me usually.

"You're still forgetting the 'king' part… I've ripped heads off in the past for that mistake, you know."

"Then try ripping _my _head off. Go on, I dare ya." She was taunting me – it was typical of Labrys, who didn't feel threatened by me whatsoever… Unfortunately… I have to sort of accept that… maybe… she… isn't… threatened by me whatsoever. B-But really now, if I went at her with even one percent of my badassery she'd be petrified with fear by now.

"I'd lose too much money if I did something like that." I play it off.

She almost smiles. "Nah. You're just too soft."

I laugh. "Me? Soft? Woman, you're either blind or just really stupid."

She frowns. "Really? I thought scientist-san told me –"

"Wait, what have those pricks downstairs been telling you…?!"

Disregarding Labrys' obvious guilty pleasure of getting the scientists in trouble, she seemed ever so indifferent to the horrifying things that I've done. She's even seen me kill someone before, but she seems so complacent about it she's basically acting as if I'm some respectable member of society who's never broken a law in his life… Well, I _am _the law now, but you get the idea.

She still had that idea in her head – that idea that I was the sort of person she could trust and rely on. But no matter how apparent it was that it wasn't the case, she never seemed to falter in her belief. It was so strange – I almost considered having the scientists poke around the part of her we actually know how to maintenance – her brain, mind your tinted glasses – to see if she was malfunctioning or something.

"…Tell me somethin'." She speaks up suddenly.

"What is it now?" I ask with as irritated a voice as possible.

"Tell me what it is you're really doin' here."

"Huh?"

"Why you're makin' me do all this fighting."

"Oh, I haven't told you yet have I?"

I then tell my tale, a tale you already know very well. I point out the gruesome details of my past – my rise to power, the days of the Acid Legion, my plan for the future – I give her the full story with no censorship. And underlying it all I'm constantly telling her:

_See? I'm a terrible person.  
__I'm just using you to gain more power.  
__I'm going to discard you like everyone else.  
__You shouldn't trust me._

But even then – even after she knows everything, my demonic smile and my gruesome words…

They have no effect.

She just nods her head in understanding.

"Well…?" I expect something more from her than a simple nod – that story was enough to give children nightmares for weeks on end. But from her? Nothing at all? How unexpected…

"Well…what?"

"How are you not scared out of your mind? Did you pay _any _attention to that story?"

But then she finally smiles. She shakes her head.

"You know somethin'?"

"Oh, _this _ought to be good."

"You can say it any way you like. But all you're doing is…" She trails off.

"Go on."

"…All your doin' is making a place where no one has to feel pain anymore, right?"

"…?"

"You can hide behind stuff like chaos theory and social anarchy or whatever it is you're goin' on about, but-"

I sigh with frustration. "You don't get it."

"Maybe _you're _the one who doesn't get it."

"How does that make _any _sense? I aspire to make a world where all live in ignorance! I want to _end _the human race and rule over it myself! _I'm _at the top, _I'm _looking down and hurting others, don't you get it? The mindless are my servants to command! I rule the world and mock it for all eternity – that's my goal! It's a nightmare – a nightmare for all living things! I want to show the world just how useless it is and tear it down – how can you come to _that _conclusion when clearly –"

Her eyes suddenly fall. Her voice no longer betrays her – for quite possibly the first time, I hear Labrys speak from her heart.

"If no one can choose how to live, no one can hurt anyone else… No one could tear people down or force them to do things. If no one's at the top anymore then no one can look down on anyone else… It's only a nightmare if people think it is… I don't think that way… I don't want to feel any of that pain, not anymore… So can't you see how beautiful a world like that would be?"

I was almost speechless. She called it beautiful. My soulless world, my Messian empire – she called the end of the human race 'beautiful.'

"…I wouldn't spare you, either."

"I don't believe you…If it were you, if it were you and no one else at the top, I think things would be okay." Her eyes meet mine. Her words are so sincere – I can see there, in her resolute gaze.

I turn away immediately.

"…Your testing is over. In a few days we'll be heading out into a real fight… If you really believe such a thing, then you'd have no qualms with accepting."

"Right, I'll… I'll do it." She agreed, although her voice wavered for a moment. Was her belief so resolute? I would find out in due time…

My mind still screams.

_Why are you so ignorant?  
How can you say that I'm not cruel beyond belief?  
__I'm this world's holy judge.  
__I'm cruel and unusual.  
__There isn't an ounce of mercy for anyone who stands in my way.  
__I'll kill you in the end too.  
__So why are you so blind?  
__How can you call my path to ruin beautiful?  
__Why will you risk your life for someone that can take it from you?_

* * *

_11:00 PM, Ayanagi City  
__February 13__th__, 2014_

During Nobunaga's previous visit, he let me in on a little secret – our vanishing mistress, Mitsuru Kirijo, was hiding out in an alleyway in Ayanagi City. Giving me the street address, Nobunaga more or less told me to deal with her as I saw fit.

So obviously, I was on my way to kill her mercilessly. That's just how I roll. Seems rather odd, considering how Nobunaga has his own agenda concerning the surviving Persona users, but in the end I decided to disregard it. After all, having a swing at stopping one of the largest threats to my project dead in its tracks was too good an opportunity to pass up.

Labrys was coming along this time, rather obviously. This would be her first exercise against a live opponent – what better opponent was there than the alleged strongest man in the world – Akihiko Sanada?

The alleyway itself seemed less like an alleyway and like ruins of an old city. There was plant overgrowth everywhere, scaling the walls and growing into the concrete and sidewalk ever so unnaturally. Further in were massive stalagmites built of ice that seemed to surround a body-like object, meant only to intimidate potential threats rather than actually pose any defense against them.

And there she was, in the center of the ice stalagmites – Mitsuru Kirijo, in a practically vegetative state, just as Nobunaga had said she was. And standing before us defiantly was Akihiko Sanada – apparently alive and well despite having the Composite Angel equivalent of an epileptic seizure with virtually no treatment whatsoever. I could still see the mark that knife had made – and the bloodstains from that wound.

"You don't look too good." I taunt him with a million dollar evil grin. Sanada doesn't really have that much of a sense of humor, evidently. He offers no rebuttal. He just continues to give me that death glare of his. A lot of fun he is…

"King Leo… I never thought you'd actually find us here."

"Not with Kurosawa on the job, at any rate."

"…Making a man like that hunt people for the sake of hunting them… You're rotten to the core."

"Ah, that's right. You were allied with him some time in the past. Unfortunately, _you _left the force behind, so now you're as much our public enemy number one as your girlfriend is."

Sanada points his dagger towards me defiantly. "I'll never let you touch her. You'll have to kill me twice before that'll happen."

"You know what? I actually believe you." I then draw attention to Labrys, standing behind me and evidently put off by Sanada's appearance. I throw an arm over her shoulders. "You know who this is?"

Sanada's eyes shift towards her. I can see confusion apparent in his gaze. But once he realizes what she is, his eyes widen. His shock was even more apparent.

"You've got the right idea, I see… That's right, this here's an Anti-Shadow Suppression Weapon… The last of her kind, at that. So you see now why I'm here?"

"I don't understand –"

"I'm not surprised you don't understand, Sanada-san. After all, Aigis was supposedly the last of her kind. Well, for all intents in purposes, she was."

I squeeze Labrys' shoulder, letting her know that now was the time. With some slight hesitation, her arms transform into machine guns. Pointing them towards Sanada, she stands ready for battle. Her eyes take on that red glow – the glow that would captivate her opponent, no matter who they were. She'd certainly come a long way in such a short amount of time.

"In fact, this little lady here was locked away in a coffin for twenty years. You wanna know why…?" I then grin ever so maliciously – I can see Sanada's anger reach a boiling point. "Well, you're about to find out…!"

With that, Labrys leaps towards him without any further hesitation. Almost immediately she's bouncing off the walls of the alleyway, leaving serious dents in the concrete as she does so. Sanada is only barely able to keep up – her machine gun fire is not only lethal but incredibly fast. She seems to perform a graceful dance as she leaps, her entire body flowing with each bullet fired. Sanada was only human – it was only a matter of time before he succumbed to his imperfections.

But Labrys – she was perfect. She couldn't fail. She wouldn't. She was a perfect creature – a living, breathing Messian, in all her glory. A Messian who could kill beautifully. The sort of Messian that there could only be one and only one of.

She was truly unique. And this display proved it.

Eventually, Sanada is backed into a corner. In one swift motion, he calls for his Persona. But as Caesar appears, Labrys backs off and avoids the impending Ziodyne spell, countering with more machine gun fire. But Sanada avoids.

"_Caesar!_" He calls once again, this time weakening Labrys' external defenses with some inhibiting spell. But making her take damage harder doesn't do him any good if he can't hit her to begin with. Labrys runs straight towards him, shifting her upper body to the side while maintaining the sprint as Sanada hurls another Ziodyne spell towards her. She closes in, and instead of going for straight up machine gun fire she simply slams her fist into his face –

But in that instant Sanada turns the tables. He takes the full force of her metallic fist and grabs her, forcing her to the ground.

Akihiko Sanada – an imperfect being. But his imperfections… make him stronger?

In one swift movement he plunges his dagger straight for her chest –

The heart…!

That's right – he knows all of her weaknesses…!

She's a mechanically inferior version of her younger sister; her metal covering was weakened only moments ago on top of that…!

He was going for the Papillon Heart!

I can see Labrys' eyes – they still posses that red glow, but now I can see it. I can see fear in her eyes. She's afraid… My perfect creature, with her perfect heart – her life hangs in the balance…!

I move. But in the moment Sanada sees me and calls to Caesar with his free hand –

She notices this. She notices this and despite how I'd be able to defend myself, she screams. She screams and, with smoke rising from her motors she manages to overpower him and with some miracle manages to shift the dagger's trajectory. It jams into her shoulder, but she's perfect, so she feels no pain. She fires off the rockets in her feet and pushes herself away from Sanada, now standing in the dead center of the alleyway, and fires at him…

It only lasts all of seven seconds. But I can see it – I can see what was happening here.

Sanada was supposed to dodge the fire.

But he wasn't… Why wasn't he –

Ah…Of course.

Directly behind him was Kirijo, who was unable to move… If he dodged the attack, he would perhaps be capable of making a counter attack – but if he did, Kirijo would be shot full of holes in his place. He didn't have the time to use his Evoker to call for Caesar, so all he could do now was protect Kirijo – he could no longer protect himself.

My eyes widen. I almost think that it was possible – possible for Labrys, all on her own, to kill a man who had briefly outsmarted Nobunaga, of all people. Every second that passed went by ever so slowly. I almost thought it was too good to be true. There was no way; simply no way that Akihiko Sanada would fall so easily.

But he stood his ground. And in a matter of instants his chest is riddled with bullets. His eyes go blank. He gasps for air, and in the next moment he slumps to the ground, his chest bleeding out slowly but surely. His head droops and he loses all strength in his hands.

"…M…Mitsuru…I…" He barely whispers his final words, his eyes slowly rolling backward – but even then he still resisted.

"…I'm…sorry…." He was dying, without a doubt, but very slowly. His willpower was simply too strong even this close to death.

Labrys lands in front of him, her killer intent still radiating off of her.

She reaches for the large apparatus attached to her back. She tugs on it, and in a matter of seconds it detaches and transforms into a massive battle axe. She hoists the axe high in the air and, with a massive scream, she readies it like a scythe and swings it with the force of a truck –

And Sanada's head is severed cleanly from his body. His blood sprays. His headless corpse slumps to the cold floor with light spasms before falling limp altogether.

My eyes remain widened. I'm in a state of shock myself.

He's dead… He's really dead…! I can see his head… His blood… He's really dead…!

My mouth twists into a demented smile. And then I laugh. I laugh, quite possibly harder than I ever had before. I laugh, and laugh…

But the punch line of the joke was yet to come… In that moment, the lifeless Kirijo lets out a sharp cry. A hopeless cry. A cry of defeat.

And I laugh. I laugh at Sanada, the strongest Persona user whose single weakness was his own heart. I laugh at Kirijo, distraught with sadness yet unable to speak a single word. I laugh at it all – at the fact that there were none who could stand up against me and survive.

It didn't matter what Nobunaga did now. It didn't matter how many Persona users there were left out there.

He's dead…!

Akihiko Sanada is dead…!

Eh-heheh…

Ahahahahahahahahhahahahahaha –

Labrys raises the bloodied axe once again – she was now aiming for Kirijo.

"That should be enough." I call out to her. "She'll die on her own. Better to leave her as she is." Her fate was now up to the cards – she could no longer threaten me, no matter how hard she tried.

Without a word, Labrys returns the axe to the impression in her back.

She then turns to me – and suddenly, my laughter fades away.

Her face is splashed with Sanada's blood. Her eyes are stricken with tears. She's shivering. She's hurt – not physically, of course.

Ah, right… She's perfect, isn't she? The perfect machine, with the perfect heart. It only makes sense that she'd be a perfect woman as well. A perfect, well bred woman who hated death and destruction as much as anyone else like her would've. And yet she was still a killing machine – a killing machine that didn't want to kill.

Her hesitation – her belief was firm. She was willing to fight and likely even die for it. Her hesitation was founded here instead – in her reluctance to kill. Her fear of being shut down, her initial compliance with the testing – it all made sense.

She didn't want to kill. She didn't want to kill, so she most definitely didn't want to kill meaninglessly.

She found meaning in this death – a purpose she had given herself. A purpose that was truly unique. A purpose that _I _didn't even understand completely. She didn't hold up completely in the end, but she never betrayed her purpose.

She truly is perfect.

I don't say anything to her – I say nothing at all and as she crashes into me, throwing her arms around me and silently crying to herself, I don't push her away. This sort of thing was a display of weakness – but it only made sense. After all, the strong can always fall apart. The strong can always become the weak. That was how I'd made it this far to begin with. Only I was fit to rule the world, after all. But Labrys – her display didn't make her any less perfect.

"Please…" She whispers.

"You'll have to kill again. You'll have to keep killing. You understand that, right?"

"I know…" She buries her head in my extravagant coat. "…I ain't doing it for anyone else... Just for you, alright…?" She tries to speak with that accent, but her emotions are too overflowing for her to keep it in check.

I decide to accept that.

It was after this evening that my definition of perfection was in itself perfect.

Perfection was something so subjective that one can go through their entire lives without ever finding it. Only because in order for something to be perfect, something needs to coincide with every positive aspect that every single human would consider perfect. Such a thing simply wasn't possible.

It was only through my ambition that such perfection could be reached.

This moment called back an unwanted memory – and unwanted memory that reminded me of just how much I strived for perfection.

Because that man – that man, with his bowl cut silver hair, his overall likable personality, his leadership capability, his inhuman strength –

I chased after him like an abandoned dog. I wanted that sort of perfection for myself.

And here I am, with perfection clinging to me much the same way.

And so I decided. My world of Shadows – my world of Labrys – would become perfection incarnate.

But even then, in the back of my mind, I couldn't help but wonder –

Was there _anything _that could be as perfect as Labrys?

_She can destroy me.  
__But she won't.  
__The way things are right now, I can destroy her.  
__But she doesn't care.  
__Many people will die if I go on.  
__But she calls my ambition beautiful.  
__I'll never understand.  
__And she knows that.  
So maybe she knows…  
__That I'd never destroy her either? _

* * *

_**Author's Note**_

So that's the end of that… Very dark times indeed. So with that, one Persona user is dead and another has become a Shadow. I wish I could say the carnage stops here, but it doesn't... not at all. This chapter essentially disregards any notion that the dystopian world didn't take a serious toll on the Persona users, contrasting with Naoto's very sane monologue in the previous chapter despite her addiction to drugs. I thought that her general uselessness when fighting Nobunaga wasn't really taken into account for much of the chapter (as I'm not particularly good at writing monologues for deranged people), so for this one I wanted to make it clear that things are as bad as they've been described.

And yes, I know how painfully obvious Leo's identity is. In all honesty, it's everyone else in this story who goes unnamed that are more important.

Anyhow, I might at one time or another go back and fix up 1.4, perhaps once I've nailed down Naoto's first person perspective after… certain… things… happen to her later in the story. But for now the story must go on.

I'm looking at eight chapters for part one, so only three left to go… Really, we're already that close to the climax. It'll all make sense when the next chapter comes around.

So I'll leave on this note. I'd like some feedback from my selection of reviewers here - where do you think the story is headed next and where do you particularly _want _it to head? I'm honestly just really curious and I'd appreciate any input regarding this.


	7. Wandering

_**1.6 Wandering**_

_A Forgotten Acre of Empty Souls_

Will you dance with me? Will you dance the dance of remembrance? Will you dance the dance that marks the passing from one life to the next? It's a marvelous dance, I assure you. Would you like to watch me a few times for practice? It'd be fantastic if you did dance with me – I've always danced alone. After all, I am little more than a grave digger.

Dance. Dance to celebrate death. Dance to celebrate the end of pain and torture. Dance to honor the fate that we're all dealt in the end. Dance to relieve the pain and to ease the souls. Dance to celebrate passing.

Dance to celebrate that which you fear more than anything else.

It sounds wrong, doesn't it? But it's not. It really isn't.

People fear the day they die. But I don't – after all, I'm nothing more than a grave digger. Death is something that marks a change – a massive change. It isn't something to be afraid of – after all, the value of life has diminished severely.

All I want is for people to understand this. I could die happily after that, even if I'd die alone with no one around me. After all, I'm little more than a grave digger. I dig graves. It's my job. I don't need anything else – my purpose is right here.

Dance for Sanada. Dance for Suou. Dance for Silverman and dance for Takeba. Dance for Dojima and dance for Adachi. Dance for all those that aren't here anymore, because they're all in a better place. Their lives had meaning, didn't they?

So don't fear for them. Don't mourn their passing. Dance for them – dance here, in this forgotten yard, so we can bring them peace. I'll even dig you a grave, free of charge.

Dance for everyone. Dance for Ikutski. Dance for Strega. Dance for Margaret, dance for Theodore. Dance for Satonaka. Dance for Amagi. Dance for Hanamura. Dance for all of them – dance for all those you've cared for that have gone before you, and your life will truly have meaning to them.

Dance – forget the pain you've felt in life. Dance here, on the edge. Dance for the sake of dancing. There's no need for conflict and struggle. You can rest with them – all you have to do is dance.

Come on, Naoto. Shinjiro. Ken. Juno. Dance – dance and forget. You're being given a place to rest after all – eternally at that.

Won't you come dance with me, on the edge of life and death?

Or will you make me stay here, all alone, to dance for all of those you leave in your wake…?

I've made your graves…

So won't you come dance with me?

I'm just a lonely grave digger.

* * *

_7:40 PM, Unspecified Hokkaido  
__February 20__th__, 2014_

It's funny – such a short while ago, I was willing to put my life on the line to reach out to the truth. How quickly such notions can fall apart.

_I want to hear your voices.  
__I can't hear them anymore.  
__I wonder if I've just gone deaf.  
__Or maybe I've stopped being able to listen.  
__Maybe I'm still too attached.  
__Maybe this rotting body is still worth something.  
__What should I do?  
__Should I run and hide?  
__Or should I keep searching?  
I want to hear your voices.  
__But is it all worth it?  
_…_No, it isn't._

_You know that, Naoto.  
You know how futile it all is.  
__You know – you know yet you refuse to accept it.  
__You're no amnesiac.  
__You know the truth.  
__You just don't want to accept it.  
__You're a coward.  
__You're a coward who forced herself out of her own mind. _

___I can't deny it.  
__I won't deny it.  
__I must accept it.  
__I won't accept it.  
__I'm a detective.  
__It's my job to expose the truth.  
__I'm a heartless killer.  
__I'll die to hide the truth. _

I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I just can't remember.

I can't remember your words, whoever you are. I can't remember what you told me – what you told me to do when I felt alone and confused. And because of that now I'm doubtlessly about to break. There's nothing anyone can do to save me now.

_Your mind clings to the past.  
__Your body lives in the present.  
__How can you live with yourself?  
__Split between a fate you can't remember-  
__And a fate you're living right now? _

My eyes peer into the darkness before me. I know they're there. I know they're waiting for me. I know that the beast standing behind me will end my life in a matter of moments. I can barely keep my eyes open, but I have no choice but to keep resisting the urge to collapse under the pressure.

I stab the first that lunges at me with a knife. It falls to the side and slowly bleeds out onto the ground, desperately trying to crawl its way towards me. I stomp down on its head until it stops moving altogether.

I aim my handgun into the darkness and fire at random. I hear various curdled screeches followed by the sound of scurrying. In another instant another appears, but this one is vanquished by the face of death that stands above me.

I feel my skin crawl. I swallow another pill without hesitation and command the monster again.

"Mamudoon."

A massive wave of death washes over the open alleyway and in a matter of seconds the Shadows around me are destroyed instantaneously. I swallow three more pills as I struggle to recover from the excessive display.

I grip my chest, now throbbing with pain. I swallow more pills, already feeling the monster above me ready itself to end my life. Despite being death incarnate, the creature is so pathetic. It's so desperate to end my life – but at the same time I'm just as desperate to stop it from doing so. In the end I'm just as pathetic.

I continue to try to suppress it. But in the end I lack the willpower. I will simply keep taking pills until it stops thrashing about.

_Thou art I, and I am thou._

_You're not me. I'm not you._

Eventually the building tension in my chest dissipates – the creature disappears and I collapse to the floor, vomiting all sorts of bile in the process.

Seven pills. I took seven pills… It was getting worse.

My eyes blur and while my brain starts to go into a very familiar sort of shut down, the headline from this morning's paper suddenly pops into my head.

_Runaway Vigilante Decapitated, Body Yet to be Found_

This was hopeless. This was all so hopeless. What was I even doing now? Was there a point to any of it anymore?

Ultimately, I knew virtually nothing about Sanada. All I knew was that he had once been a member of law enforcement, but quit to preserve his sanity. He searched and searched for Kirijo, the woman he doubtlessly loved, and in the end died to protect her. And in the aftermath, what was left of Kirijo was nowhere to be seen and Sanada's death was more or less in vain.

I'd only met him once, long ago. But I knew enough about him to easily gauge his strength. At one point I figured that as long as someone of his caliber was close by, perhaps fighting a losing battle wouldn't be so costly.

We'd lost, hadn't we? Our strongest was brutally murdered. Did any of us stand a chance? No, we didn't. So what was the point? I could put my life on the line all I wanted – but in the end I had to accept that I only made such a claim because I believed I would ultimately survive. But that was no longer the case.

I collapse then and there, with virtually no willpower to keep on going. If I was found or even if I just died right now the way I was, I wouldn't have any regrets. I couldn't try, even if I had the strength to. No amount of believing in yourself or trust in your allies would make it any more possible.

But my luck simply wouldn't run out, much to my dismay. Standing over me a few minutes later was a familiar looking woman with unusually green hair.

Ah, right. It was another body about as pulverized as mine was – a body with only an ego but no Shadow. A body that had been abandoned by its owner and maintained beyond its expiration date by the owner's Persona.

Her name was Juno – her other self, Fuuka Yamagishi, had been driven so far off the edge that she became a Shadow and fled her body in despair. I wonder if I'll suffer a similar fate at one point or another. But whenever I considered escape from this shell I had the misfortune of calling a body, I always thought of another possibility – that the face of death would escape from my mind and reap my soul no matter what I did.

I was afraid of death still, as irrational as it seems, so the possibility scared me to no end. You'd just never be able to tell from looking at me or listening to my speech – my overall psyche was just a front, after all, to cover for what little sanity there was left underneath.

Considering these things, I had very recently come to another crossroad – a point where I had to make yet another decision and act accordingly, even if the decision was impossible for me to make with any certainty at all. But in the end I came to my own conclusion – a conclusion that seemed to make more sense the more I saw this woman standing before me.

If her mind was at such staggering ends with itself, I could only wonder how chaotic my own mind was.

My memory is in shambles. But I know myself – or rather who I was once three years ago.

And compared to what I am now, and what I have the potential to become, if Juno is any indication –

I have no delusion that Naoto Shirogane is still alive. I have no idea if I'm just something she left behind three years ago when she died the first time or if I'm just Yamato Takeru gone haywire, but in the end it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what I am – I have a goal that I can no longer reach, so having an identity is no longer important. But I still have to fight. Because I'm still afraid of death, regardless of what I am on the inside.

"Leave me." I speak.

"Unfortunately I can't do that."

"So you _do_ get it after all?"

"Believe it or not, I've got a better idea about you than you do yourself. Doing this will only alleviate the pain for so long."

"Alleviate the pain…?" I gave her a dumbfounded look before I burst out laughing, my laughter tainted by my severely damaged throat.

"You're acting like you aren't hurting deep down, then?"

"There's no way I can alleviate this sort of pain. Even if I tried as hard as possible. It can't be done."

"And you're so sure of that…? You're so sure that rising up from the ashes is so impossible?"

"Then why haven't you?"

"I can't do anything about my circumstances. I'm not the one with the power to."

"Then how do you know that I'm able to?"

This was the sort of stalemate that we came to many times. Juno would attempt to make a mockery of my circumstances while never really acknowledging her own. In the end neither one of us was qualified to pass judgment on the other, and even further in that vein was the general futility in doing so – there wasn't a reason for any of it. We simply felt the need to degrade each other as if to lessen our own circumstances. But ultimately we never could, and so we came to almost hate each other.

She sighs. "…There's something you have to see… Well, it's something we both need to see."

With some effort, Juno gets me off the ground and more or less drags me along with her down the road. I wasn't even remotely sure of what this was all about, but in the end all I needed to know was right there – there in her eyes, where she seemed to express hesitation. Whatever it was, I began to feel that I had to see it as well.

Eventually we come to a stop in front of another alleyway, this one heavy with the stench of death. I peer into the darkness –

And I see him.

Shinjiro is there, surrounded by the lifeless corpses of countless Shadows, so innumerable that they covered the entirety of the ground and had begun to pile along the walls. Shinjiro stood there, bashing his axe into two Shadows at the same time. He didn't make a sound – no sound needed to be made. He was simply killing the Shadows – there was no sadness. There was no hatred. He was simply killing them because he couldn't do anything else.

"Shinjiro's different from the rest of us." Juno suddenly speaks.

"How so?"

"He's already died once. He doesn't have any preconceptions about how things should be. He already knows how things are – he knew that Akihiko was going to die at some point. He knew that things couldn't have possibly turned out well for him."

I could somewhat understand what she was saying. He gave off nothing – literally nothing. He was simply killing.

"So then… Why is he…" I trail off, suddenly coming to a conclusion on my own.

"There's a part of him that's just like us. He's barely human anymore, but no matter how much of his humanity he's discarded, he's still human. He can't change that, and so he simply has to do this to keep himself from falling apart completely."

"But… What could've made him like this?"

"I don't know the specific reason, but… I've already told you – he died once. He came back because someone he knew nothing about saved his life. For someone like him –"

"He couldn't stand thinking about it. He couldn't accept that someone he knew nothing about had save him… But why?"

"...Can't you guess? It's likely because he couldn't save someone important to him. Just the idea that someone would save his life simply because he could likely torments him deep inside… Of course I can't be completely sure about that, but… If people like us are any frames for reference, it's very likely."

I continue to watch as Shinjiro massacres Shadow after Shadow. Not a single one of them bats an eyelash at either of us – Shinjiro is simply too strong, and their deaths are certain. As time went on, I almost couldn't stand watching it – watching Shinjiro engage in my own practically daily routine was simply too mortifying.

That evening I returned to our current lodgings with Juno. At that point both of us had more than enough time to mull over how meager our own circumstances were compared to Shinjiro's. Shinjiro wasn't afraid of dying – he was afraid of failing to protect those around him more than anything else. At one point I believed that he truly had nothing to lose. But I knew now that the only reason I had thought such a thing was because I had lacked the ability to understand.

And why – why couldn't I understand?

I understood that, at least.

It was more like I'd known the entire time, but only now that I've examined Shinjiro, someone whose fate isn't all that different from mine, that I could finally be able to accept it.

I had shut myself off – I had shut myself off because whatever had caused my circumstances had been too massive a pain for my mind to handle. Unlike Shinjiro I wasn't able to hold myself together, and in the end I had to solve my problem by running away. I shut off everything that made me who I was, leaving only my most personal memories and meager flashes of that time three years ago. I removed my humanity by force, and so I locked myself away in the deepest recession of my mind and left this personality in my place – this personality, which could do nothing but contemplate what could have happened and take drugs to keep it all from leaking out.

I had to keep repressing the face of death. I had to take the drugs. If I didn't, I'd fall apart ever so readily. I wasn't as strong as Shinjiro – I couldn't hold together. And in the end even removing myself from my own mind wasn't enough to stop it from continuing.

It doesn't matter anymore – it doesn't matter how hard I try. There's no reason for me to continue preserving this body. But I'm just too afraid of death to end it all.

Later that evening, Shinjiro stumbles into my room, cut up severely although apparently not mortally wounded or even heavily bleeding for that matter.

The sex that evening is more or less completely consensual. I have to know – I have to know why Shinjiro is the way he is. And through any other way I'll never find out. But even then I doubt I can come to understand him anyway.

* * *

_10:40 AM, Unspecified Hokkaido  
__February 21__st__, 2014_

The following morning, we find ourselves at a loss. We almost mull over our possibilities, but in the end there isn't very much we could do in retaliation. Fighting for Sanada's sake was something that most of the people around me would be willing to do in an instant, but under these circumstances, there was little that could be done. It seemed as if everyone around me had come to the same conclusion that I had – that it was all futile, and that if the strongest amongst us had been defeated there was no chance any of us could make any sort of a difference.

Amada was rather pensive for the duration of the day, while Juno seemed put off by what we had seen the night before. Shinjiro was more or less completely unchanged, as was to be expected. But as time went on, I wondered if I was the same.

I'd honestly through there was some sanity to what I believed before. I had truly thought that I'd be able to proceed through every struggle I came across, even if I had to stare death in the face. But in the end I never truly accepted death for what it was – I could say whatever I wanted, but I continued to suppress the face of death with drugs. I had perhaps reached a point in my life where I was truly at a loss – I was at a crossroad where the only path was to turn back. There wasn't anything ahead of me – I had essentially been pretending that there was the entire time.

I couldn't help but wonder how far I would've gone if Sanada hadn't died the way he did. I'd probably have never come to realize any of this until the moment I died – but here I am, alive and well, accomplishing just as much as I would have if I'd died anyway.

Later into the day, I'm approached by Juno. Apparently she was given a letter from an anonymous person earlier in the day – a letter which simply tells 'Akihiko's friends' to meet the writer at a street corner later that evening. I'm initially suspicious, but Juno seems to think that someone who managed to track us down is certainly not an enemy. I press her as to why, but she doesn't really answer.

Later that evening, I follow Shinjiro and the others to the street corner – the person who had contacted us was already there, standing next to a large black car – enough to fit several people.

"I'm glad you all showed up." The man speaks rather casually. I eye him suspiciously, but the others seem a lot less tense.

The man wears a tattered baseball cap along with a white t-shirt and black jeans. He looks rather disheveled, which contrasts heavily with the expensiveness of the car he's standing by.

"Junpei…?" Juno seems rather surprised – apparently whoever this man is, she's associated with him, as are the rest.

The man takes note of me, the only face he's not familiar with.

"I'm Junpei Iori. It's nice to meet you. Shirogane, right?"

"…Yes." I don't question why he knows who I am, but it seemed that the others were going to do that for me.

"Weren't you supposed to be dead?" Ken asks, hiding his surprise rather well.

"A lot of people are supposed to be dead. What of it?" Iori jokes somewhat solemnly.

"How did you find us?" Juno gets straight to the point.

"Don't forget I've got a pretty messed up Persona. Fuuka could probably tell you guys better than I could… That is, if she were still around."

Juno clams up.

Iori laughs. "It's not a big deal. I'm not holding it against you. We've all got our problems."

Juno seems to relax after he says that. "But why contact us in such a strange way?" She continues.

"Let's just say the walls have eyes and the king's got some pretty big ears." It would seem he was under surveillance to some degree.

"Well, out with it. What's this about?" Shinjiro gets straight to the point.

"Well, considering the circumstances, there's only one thing I'd really want to talk to you guys about…"

"About what we plan to do, right?" Ken sighs.

Iori glances around the group, before sighing himself. "Looks like a tough crowd." He then walks towards the car, opening one of the doors. "I'd like to have gotten you guys to reconsider, but it looks like that isn't happening…"

"I'm not sure what you're expecting." Shinjiro grunts.

"I'm expecting you guys to actually give a damn."

"Sounds like a lot of work." Ken shrugs.

Iori shakes his head.

He swings the door open. And in the back of the car was someone none of us particularly expected to see – Mitsuru Kirijo, resting against the back seat, void of all life. Battered and bruised, likely defiled in every way possible, yet still here… Still alive.

"I found her crawling along the sidewalk in Ayanagi City. She's been like this for a very long time, but despite that here she is."

We all had different reactions – but from the looks of things, we weren't shocked enough for Iori.

"Don't you get it?" He sighs. "Just look at her – she's just like all of the Lost from back then. She can't think straight anymore, but even now, she's struggling to survive. Despite everything that's happened to her, here she is – she isn't giving up. She's never going to recover, and she knows it. But even then, she's not giving in. She's still living, even when the rest of you want to give up."

I peered into Kirijo's blank eyes. I saw nothing but agony and despair in her empty gaze. Clearly, this was a person who could no longer fend for themselves.

But Iori was right. Even though she had witnessed Sanada's death firsthand, even though she could no longer speak coherently or even walk upright, here she was – desperately struggling against inevitability. Risking what little she had left to risk for the sake of us – all of us, who were willing to just give up and spend what little life we had left living in fear – fear of death.

Amada then speaks up. "…You know what? You're right. Too bad it's way easier to say we're gonna kill Leo than to actually do it." Amada had his own agenda, but even then he was willing to point out the obvious.

"…Shit." Shinjiro curses under his breath.

"What would you have us do, then?" Juno finally speaks her mind.

"Can't we fight back? Can't we just storm the castle and kill the boss?"

"Attack Babel? We'd never make it through the front doors." I point out something fairly obvious.

"Have you tried? Have _any _of you tried? Or are you just going to assume that it's impossible?"

"I'm not exactly the best one to say this," I continue, "but Sanada-san's death doesn't exactly inspire much."

"But does that even matter?" Amada suddenly speaks. "Even if we were dumb enough to rush in like martyrs, what are we going to do the way we are right now?"

Iori sighs with frustration when no one agrees with him. "For fuck's sake…" He growls under his breath. "This is the same shit we dealt with four years ago!" He shouts.

"Like it or not, there's a huge difference between now and then." Juno speaks solemnly. I'm in the dark as to what happened four years ago, but it seemed that the other three understood her just fine.

"Yeah." Iori scoffs. "We don't have _him _here to make our decisions for us."

"There _was _a reason Aigis picked him, after all. Of course she took her reason to the grave, but…" Amada trails off.

"I'm not gonna sugarcoat things. I didn't know the guy at all." Shinjiro speaks up. "But if both Mitsuru and Aki thought he was good enough, he must've been the real deal…"

"You don't sound too happy with that, Shinjiro." Iori notices a certain tension about Shinjiro.

"…It's just that I'm not sure _why _he made our decisions for us."

"Because we were all too stupid back then." Juno then laughs somewhat pitifully. "Honestly, we aren't any different now. Without him to lead us, we're at a loss for what to do."

Hearing them talk about their leader – it all sounded so familiar…

…Was it because _you _were the same way?

Did you make our decisions for us?

Did you drag us along, throwing the weight of our ignorance over your shoulders?

Did you die…Instead of me?

Even if I'm not Naoto anymore –

It's not fair. That you died in place of someone like me.

Maybe if you were here…

…

…But you're not here.

I'm here.

You were willing to take care of us, each step of the way, no matter how bad things got. That much I can remember…

…Here I am now, living in your shadow.

What am _I _willing to do?

And Shinjiro – Shinjiro wasn't afraid of dying. He'd already died once before. But even then he was willing to keep on fighting, even if it didn't make any difference. He was willing – because he found value in protecting people. Protecting people like me.

"…It doesn't matter." I suddenly speak up. All eyes are suddenly on me. I continue after slight hesitation. "It doesn't matter that they aren't here anymore. They already gave up everything they had so we could be here, right?"

I receive no response.

"We're supposed to stop the Shadows from taking over the world, aren't we? Didn't your leader give up his life willingly for all of you? Can't we all do the same for everyone else?"

"The rest of the world doesn't care enough." Amada points out.

"But that didn't stop him from giving his life up for it, did it? But here we are, claiming we treasure the second chances we've all been given, and here we are afraid to put them to use. I know I'm way over my head with this sort of thing, but if we keep going on like this, his death will truly be in vain."

"You're right. This is way over your head." Amada tries to play my logic down significantly.

"Hey, it's not like she's any different." I was somewhat surprised – Shinjiro had come to my defense. "Even if she wanted to she couldn't just…!" His temper was rising, but it seemed that he was agreeing with me.

That's right…

_You'd _have died in vain too…right?

I don't care that I don't remember a thing about you.

I might not be Naoto.

I might not be the girl that fell in love with you.

But I don't care about that.

I don't even care about finding the truth anymore.

If I let myself pass away the way I am now –

I might as well have killed you myself.

People will give themselves up for those they love.

I should be able to do the same – for what you left behind.

"I don't know anything about Kirijo-san either, but wasn't she the one who kept you all going through the years? Yes, you've lost another dear friend since then – someone close to her died right before her eyes – but she's still here, because she still believes she owes something to someone who gave up their life in her place."

Silence. It seems that my words were finally starting to sink in. Iori nodded with approval – for a moment I almost faltered, but his sudden encouragement made me continue.

"It doesn't matter what my past is supposed to be. All that matters is that I'm here now, and someone likely died in my place as well. I want to kill King Leo – not because I have a personal goal. Because I want to ensure that his death wasn't in vain… You can all understand, can't you?"

"…Fuuka gave up her humanity because she wanted the violence to stop. Since then I've wondered… Why am I still going? Maybe it's because I thought I was stronger than she was… Now I see that wasn't the case at all…" Juno trails off. "But you know what? You're actually right… Looks like I didn't have you figured out much at all." She laughs lightly. "I know now why Fuuka gave in… But at least for her, I can't. I have to make her see – I have to make her see that she _did _have the strength to stop the violence."

"So you understand?" I try to continue. "We have to fight. There's nothing else we can do. If we fight and end up dead, then so be it. We're just gonna die no matter what happens anyway, aren't we?"

"Eh…You've got a point." Amada finally caves in. "I'll be honest – I only could convince myself that I was going to ignore death for so long. After that fight with Nobunaga I wasn't really sure what to think. But you know what? If that asshole shows up again, I'll just kick his ass. And if he kills me? I won't give a fuck – I don't exactly have any regrets."

"But what about your goal?" Juno inquires.

"The world is fucked up, yeah. But becoming even more fucked up personally isn't gonna get me anywhere."

"…Aragaki-kun? Are you…?" I was almost pleading with him to accept my words. I knew it was hard to get through to him most of the time.

He shrugs. "If I fight for revenge I'll just get myself killed. I can't avenge our leader because I didn't know a damn thing about him… But if you're gonna get all suicidal on me, you can count me in."

I wasn't sure why, but when he said that – I felt… Perhaps I felt glad? Glad that he was willing to throw himself at death's jaw because I'd be right there with him?

Iori broke my line of thought. "So…Are we all going for this now?"

"You're right too, Junpei… We did this exact same thing four years ago… Maybe we're a bit better off now?"

"I…I think so too." Juno agrees with Amada's line of thought. "All we need to do is follow his example…"

"Right…" Iori then laughs. "Damn, and I thought I'd be better leader material back then… Man, was I wrong or what?"

Eventually we fell silent again before Iori spoke up. "So…How are we gonna do this this time?"

"The same way we did it last time. We're even climbing another tower. No way we can fuck this up." Amada decides to answer.

"So then… We need a leader, don't we?" Iori points out the obvious. Kirijo wasn't exactly going to suffice this time around, but out of the pack of us, who could possibly measure up to her? Who could measure up to their leader?

Who could measure up to _you_?

Shinjiro then proposes something a bit delirious "…Naoto. You do it."

I expected objections around the room. But not a single person protested.

"M-Me? But I'm…"

"It doesn't matter how crazy you get. Things aren't going to be the way they were before – we're going to support you every step of the way." Juno attempts to reassure me. "Honestly, if you can talk these guys out of being stubborn, you can probably command an army if you wanted to."

After a short round of insults and laughs – from all except from Shinjiro, of course – I had the time to think it over.

I wonder…

Is this why I'm here? Am I here to do this? Am I here to give others hope when I have no hope myself?

I said I had hope in my heart. I was essentially lying. I didn't believe it was possible even now, but I refused to have let these people die in vain. Too many innocent people, far better people than any of us were, died for our sake. I didn't believe I could save the world – but could I avenge it? Could justice be passed as it should?

I wonder –

…No, I'm not wondering anymore.

I know for certain. I know you died for a reason. I know it was you that saved me for a reason. I know it was you. Even if you came back from the dead and told me otherwise I wouldn't believe you.

No matter how dark things seem, I had to keep moving forward. I truly mean it this time.

I have no delusion that we will succeed. We will all likely die in the coming battle. I had always known that death was at my back. But only now did I face death directly. Nobunaga was right – I did revolve around the world. I was human – we were all human, and we are therefore all subject to the whims of the world. What happens will happen – I never really understood it before. But now –

Now I know what needs to be done.

King Leo sent us a message. Now we'll send him one right back – and we'll drop it on his front doorstep.

This level of reasoning is possible for me – Naoto Shirogane.

"Alright then… So I guess it's official?" Amada broke the silence.

"Right." Juno nods her head in agreement. "Tonight… SEES revives here. We're not all together anymore, but we can manage. People died because they believed in us… I think we can believe in ourselves a bit too."

"…I'm not one for all of that sappy crap, but I can't deny that…" Shinjiro trails off.

I didn't know what the future held. I knew the fight was unwise. But that didn't change anything.

I want to fight. I want to put an end to everything. I know I won't succeed. But in dying, at least I'll have fulfilled something.

You can stalk me all you want, face of death. You can stab me as many times as you'd like. I won't die until I'm the last one standing.

Isn't that what you'd want?

…Isn't that what you left me here to do?

If that's the case, then I can't falter ever again.

So I'll hold out for as long as I can.

* * *

_A Forgotten Acre of Empty Souls_

You won't dance with me…

But you're happy, so is it okay?

I don't know…

I don't know… But should I care?

I'm not sure… I don't know what to do…

But suddenly… I can feel them. A person standing behind me. Someone who wants to dance?!

…Oh, no… It's not, it's…

"…Ah, have you finally come for me? Has that bastard tomb keeper finally sent you here to end me?"

I beg them…

I'm just a grave digger…

Please, don't kill me…

I'm so happy the way I am now… Please, let me dance. Let me dance the dance of death…

"…Your purpose has expired, grave digger." I hear their voice…. Their voice… I don't want them to kill me. I want them to leave, right now. "What's wrong? Aren't you going to dance your nihilistic dance? Or have you finally realized?"

What are they talking about, I wonder?

"Surely, you know by now…"

No, I don't. But please don't tell me, I don't want to know.

"You're just like the rest of them… You have no concept of death, even though you yourself are dead."

That's not true. I may be dead… Don't listen to them, please. Come dance with me. I don't want to be alone anymore…

"Death is not to be celebrated. Celebration itself should not be observed. 'The good things in life,' 'making the best of things' – all such ideas are blasphemous. Such things aren't real. Such things should be discarded – they enshroud the truth. Such things turned this world into what it is."

But there's nothing to be gained, there's nothing to find pleasant, nothing to enjoy –

"You're poisonous. Leave, now…"

"Your pleasantries are part of what created the rift between fear and awe. Death is to be respected, nothing more. Without that respect, and without that acknowledgement, the world becomes ignorant, and results in the world we face today. "

"But what is the world without happiness?"

"Nothing. The world did not need happiness once. But people like you made it so… I, Raidou Kuzunoha the Seventeenth, shall end your strangling of the truth…"

No.

No, that can't be true.

This world is nothing without happiness…

"From stitching together stuffed animals to dancing to the tune of death… The lengths you go to maintain your state of bliss is disgusting."

They ram a massive blade into my chest… No, this isn't how… No, this isn't how this should happen…!

"Bliss is… Wonderful…"

"Bliss is the poison you've so fondly spoken of… Your desire for happiness led to this. Remember that, and as you fade away forever let your own folly be your guide into the depths of Hirasaka."

You can't live without bliss…

If bliss isn't real… If bliss is my poison…

Then why?

Why was I told to dance?

Why was dancing all I could do?

Can someone…

Please…

Answer me…?

* * *

_Nowhere In Particular_

The more I watch them the more curious I become. The more I seem to fear for their survival, the more delirious their notions become. It's almost as if deep down they all know it – that there isn't any chance that a pack of dying warriors could accomplish such a massive task. But in the memory of humanity's messiah and the faceless man from Inaba, they plan to go through with it. They all have no concept of death, and so fear it as all humans do. But even then they're willing to destroy themselves because they see no other way to continue living.

No human has true perception of death, but they at least have some sense of how desperate this world is, even if they don't know how to deal with it. Individually they all experienced their unshakable wills crumple like a sheet of paper, so their realities aren't as diluted. Perhaps they _are _the most suitable to the task. But I can't help but wonder – the four that I must gather. Aragaki, Shirogane, Juno, and Amada. Could they truly be the four?

No, that couldn't be… I was reading into things far too deeply. Surely, there must be some folly behind their actions…

I tried to get any notion of a positive end scenario to this suicide mission of theirs out of my head. It didn't help that if things went the way I felt they would, the two who are not yet destined to fight would meet, and all hell would break loose. Surely their resolve was misplaced or at the very least misguided in this sense.

...But then if that were the case, who else could the four be?

There weren't any others. There was very little chance that another four Persona users could rise to the task. Iori lacks the destiny, while Kirijo lacks the stability and the sanity. There weren't even spares left behind – Nobunaga ensured that, slaughtering what was left behind...

Surely he believes that these four are the ones, if he left them alive. But was that even the case? Had he simply left these four alive to throw the forces conspiring against him off his trail?

I knew not what Nobunaga was planning. I knew not what Leo planned to do with his angel of death. I knew not what greater end Shirogane was trying to reach.

I had to watch – that was all I could do. I had to watch this group of survivors fall to pieces. If they succeeded, then the world would be saved. But if they didn't… Then was there such a thing as fate?

My dearest… Please, help me see through the haze… I am a mere Kuzunoha. I know nothing of their world. I know nothing of their resolve. I know nothing of their hopes and dreams or of their will to survive. I know nothing, not even of their emotions… I am afraid.

What would you do? Why am I here, and not you? I would gladly have gone in your place… I lack all that you once had. I lack the understanding. I lack the capacity. I lost everything when you faded away into my memories. And now, all I have left is a dull hatred and the strength to express it.

Perhaps in your memory, I can find my answer?

But how much can I truly remember? What part of my memories of you can serve such a grand purpose?

Can chasing after your spirit serve any true purpose?

Here I am. Here I am, living for a greater purpose.

But why –

Why can't I see things the way you could?

What do I have to do?

I can't walk on water or cure the sick.

But maybe you could?

Then what can I do?

All I want…

…All I want doesn't matter.

I have a greater purpose.

And that purpose – that purpose rests in the incapable hands of these four.

Was there hope for any of them? Was there even hope for me? I began to doubt it. But in the end only time would tell.

* * *

_**Author's Note**_

I apologize for the delay on this chapter... I've been fairly occupied for the last week or two, but now I've got the time I need to finish up Part 1. The next chapter will in fact be the last for this portion of the story. Afterward, I'm going to actually move from this story to another for some amount of time. This is mostly because I really want more feedback on what I have here so far. I'm not going to demand X number of reviews or anything like that but if you've been reading without reviewing, leave some feedback. That way I'll get back to this story faster. But anyhow, expect the next chapter in the next five days.


	8. Clarity

_**Author's Note**_

Uh… Surprise? I actually got around to finishing this a lot earlier than I had anticipated, so… Here it is, the end of Part 1.

Regarding the whole POV thing, I could've sworn I made it clear who was speaking in each section (except for the grave digger because you aren't supposed to know who he is until the end)… But anyhow, this chapter has multiple POV switches (and not just two or three) so I've actually gone ahead and labeled them already.

So…Yeah, that's all I have to say about that. Enjoy, and etc.

* * *

_**1.7 Clarity**_

_11:00 PM, Outside Shinjuku Tower  
__March 1__st__, 2014_

Ultimately, our decision to enter the tower was a decision based out of ignorance. But even then none of us really cared all that much for the logic behind it – there was only the goal we were going to die to achieve and how we were going to make the most of what would likely become our first and last mission as an official group, if what we had could even qualify as such a thing.

Our plan was fairly simplistic. The ultimate goal was to assassinate King Leo, and to do so in the most depth defying way possible. The focus point of the plan was to do as much damage to the tower as possible, so the entirety of Shinjuku would know of what had happened.

The first part of this plan was to essentially walk through the front door and make it to the second floor without being killed. To do this, we had to make use of what we knew about the layout of the tower. The tower has a vast series of elevators that lead to different sections of different floors, including elevators built solely for the underground levels. But based on what Iori had gathered there was a set of stairwells that each ran up half of the tower. Using those stairs, we could essentially make it to the top while avoiding the bulk of the security – evidently the stairwells were not well guarded, and we could handle what security they had fairly easily.

Getting into the city wasn't difficult in the slightest – we were driven in the car that Iori had acquired. I didn't question the driver of the car, mainly because he seemed to be more of a bystander than anything else. But anyhow, upon entering the city there wasn't any sort of resistance – There was a bit of tension as we entered the city, but there weren't any Shadows out or about at this time. Oddly enough, there didn't seem to be any Shadows or any presence of any Shadows in what supposedly served as their nest. But I chose to disregard it – there wasn't any way they could've known we were coming, so I chose not to dwell on it.

We end up driving to the point where we're a block away from the tower. In the end it was decided that Iori was to stay here to guard Kirijo while the rest of us went into the tower. He was rather reluctant about being the one left behind, but he accepted his role regardless. We ended up walking the entire distance without even really being discreet about it. There was a severe lack of security on and around the premises, and there wasn't even anyone posted at the front door.

I look around somewhat dubiously, unaware that Amada had taken notice.

"You feel it too, right? Like it's too easy?" He speaks up.

I take a moment to realize he had directed that at me and nod my head. "There's virtually no security whatsoever. There's something amiss here."

"I wonder… Maybe they know we're coming?" Juno suddenly speaks up.

"Doubtful." I reply. "Surveillance up in Hokkaido is very weak. All the focus is here. Despite the Shadows we found up north the authorities were incredibly sparse."

"I've got an easier explanation…" Amada trails off. "…But I'll keep it to myself for now."

Juno and Shinjiro exchange glances as we continue down the sidewalk, past the front door and around the side, verifying that a stairwell leading into the tower did indeed exist.

"Well, at least our info's solid. Let's take the front entrance, then." I lead the group back towards the front doors and without a second thought we barge in, making as much noise as possible.

There wasn't a soul around. The front desk was vacant, the elevators seemed to be stopped – something was certainly amiss.

"Heh. Looks like we can just ride to the top." Amada sighs.

"What now?" Shinjiro questions me specifically.

I rack my brain for an answer. It would seem that we had to rethink our plan – clearly this was a trap, and it would seem that while our options of reaching the top had increased, or chances of doing so while remaining intact had lowered significantly. Perhaps the elevators were rigged? But then wouldn't the stairwells be rigged as well? What if they didn't know that we knew about the stairwell? But that made no sense – the ground floor exit could be seen from outside the building. Perhaps there was no way up the tower after all…?

Suddenly Juno points towards one of the elevators.

"That one's rigged from top to bottom. The other isn't, but there're claymores planted in the shaft starting on floor thirty."

"Whoa, you can sniff for bombs now too?"

"Fuuka wasn't the only one who learned something at university." She spoke somewhat proudly.

"That aside, are there any Shadows in the tower?" I got to a much more pressing matter.

She shakes her head. "Not a single one. I haven't detected a single one in this city since we've arrived, for that matter."

"Huh… I'm not sure how obvious they wanna make this." Shinjiro grunts. "Naoto, make a call. Are we still going through with this or what?"

I nod my head. "Don't see why we should stop now."

We head towards the elevator that according to Juno was functional. But as we do so, Amada suddenly stops dead in his tracks and readies his spear.

"What's up?" Shinjiro takes note as he taps the button to call the elevator.

"…You _sure _you're not detecting anything out of the ordinary?" Amada questions Juno.

"Nothing… I've never been particularly good at getting signals from high in the air, but there aren't any Shadows in this tower. That I know for certain."

Amada sighs. "It's not the Shadows I'm worried about." He turns away from us. "Sorry, but I've gotta hang back for a bit."

"Wait, you want to split up? I don't think –" I try to argue, but Shinjiro stops me.

"Just let him do things his way… I know you're the leader and all, but he's probably on to something." I look at him – the look in his eyes tells me he knows more than he's letting on.

"…Alright. If you don't make it to the thirtieth floor in fifteen minutes, we're continuing on without you, understood?" I decide to let it go.

Amada faces me and grunts. "I'll do it in five."

With that, the elevator reaches the lobby and we enter, leaving Amada to his business…

* * *

_The Fate of Ken Amada_

They disappear into the elevator, leaving me to my thoughts – but only for the moment. Our first real attacker is only a few feet away from me, his sword ready to plunge into my chest despite the distance. It was all very curious – how not a soul was to be found and how the tower seemed like it was ready for a full scale attack.

"You aren't being stealthily. Wasn't ever your strong suit, honestly."

My attacker grunts in response.

"I found it rather peculiar – that you knew exactly where to find us. Your reason didn't sit well with me from the start, since you've never had the patience for what the others did – without Fuuka it would've been impossible for you… Which led me to think – what if Fuuka _was _involved? Once I entertained that possibility, you weren't fooling me."

"…Heh. I'm almost sorry I didn't come up with something better."

"Well, at least you admit you suck at coming up with excuses – I wonder how Yukari and the others put up with you. I guess you didn't earn your nickname for nothing, eh, 'Stupei'?"

"I almost thought I'd never hear that name again." Junpei sighs as he readies his katana.

"Not surprising. Considering how you guys killed pretty much everyone who knew that name."

"Look, I don't know anything about any of that." He replies, not expecting me to believe him.

"Just tell me something – what'd they get you with?"

"You won't understand even if I tell you." He speaks rather coldly. "You're still just a kid."

"You put SEES back together. You brought us Mitsuru. Clearly it was all a ploy to get us into the tower. I'd figure that Mitsuru would be your first priority target, though."

"She was… Until Akihiko-san got wasted. The king let her go, and even though a few million yen was wasted we didn't ask questions."

"And then you used her to get to us… She was struggling – struggling because she was trying to tell us you weren't trustworthy."

"Sure seems that way."

Junpei swings his katana like a baseball bat, aiming to take my head off. I move fast enough to dodge and quickly retaliate with a swing of my spear. I manage to graze his left cheek, but grazing wasn't good enough. I had to move faster and land a solid hit – then I could celebrate.

He backs away for a moment, thrusting the sword in my direction. At least his abilities hadn't improved – mine had, and by quite a bit. But even then I doubted I could overpower Junpei with sheer force of will – and more importantly, it would only take one good swing with that katana for him to take my head off. I'd need to sting him repeatedly before I'd get anything done.

I jump towards him, aiming the spear diagonally, but I miss him narrowly. With the opening, he swings his katana, but in that instant Kala Nemi springs forth, blocking the attack and sending Junpei flying with a solid punch to the stomach. I manage to gain my bearings and swing the spear again, this time slashing Junpei's side.

I move away from him as he swings downward with only one arm supporting the katana. He ends up falling to the floor, but as Kala Nemi moves to plunge his fist downward he rolls away, slashing at Kala Nemi with the katana and successfully repelling him. Now once again on his feet he runs straight towards me, planning on using the speed of his run and the force of the katana to end things right here. The way things were, he was definitely going to – my spear would likely snap in two if it was hit with a swing with that much force behind it. I call to Kala Nemi, hoping that he could absorb most of the swing, but even then I ended up being sent backward a good ways from the impact. Such a swing – it wasn't natural for any human being to be able to swing anything with that much force.

I grip my spear with both hands, charging at Junpei with a similar intent, but the moment I get close enough he positions his katana to block.

In that moment I thrust the spear towards the ground, using my momentum and the strength of the spear's tip to send myself flying upward, over Junpei and directly behind him. Without even gauging his position I reverse the spear and stab backward – the tip plunges into Junpei's back, but despite how painful it must've been he only grunts.

"Now would be a good time to give up."

"Heh, fuck you too, Ken." With that brief taunt he lurches forward, ripping the spear out of his back. He turns and swings at the same time, taking advantage of my opening. I call for Kala Nemi, but he is stopped – stopped by Trismegistus, who finally appears a few feet away from me. He charges straight into Kala Nemi, leaving me open to Junpei's swing. I manage to use the spear to block it and duck, kicking off the ground and using my few seconds of airtime to quickly swing the spear again, this time slashing along Junpei's left arm.

And then I see it – an opening. A fatal opening.

I judge the distance between where I'm about to land and where Junpei is standing – the space is just enough for me to try something suicidal.

Well, it's about time I tried _his _move. It's funny, though. He borrowed my spear one evening and managed to pull off something this delirious that same night… He used this move once to save Aigis. Looks like I'm going to use it to save myself.

The moment my feet touch the ground I essentially put all my cards on the table. With all the strength my right arm possesses, I hurl the spear at Junpei –

His chest is pierced all the way through. He gags and coughs blood. Trismegistus vanishes, only to reappear above its master, its hostile aura vanishing instantly. Trismegistus could only repair the wound so much – in the end its healing capacity was nowhere as inhuman as Medea's had been, but with what it was capable of, it could keep its master alive for at least a while longer. Junpei laughs haughtily, his chest bleeding profusely. Clearly that wound was mortal.

"Nice shot… I think I've seen that somewhere before… It's like I've seen a ghost."

"I'm surprised you can remember that far back."

"That aside… You seem so sure this is over..."

"It is, isn't it?"

"Hah, well, at least it would appear that way…"

"You can't fool me. I know all your tricks, unfortunately."

"Heh, save for that last one, right?

"…Yeah, save for that last one…" I grimace as the massive gash in my side finally sinks in – surely, I'd normally have seen it coming. But in that moment Junpei was open – I'd failed to notice that he'd switched from his two handed stance to his one handed stance when I slashed his arm. Perhaps I'd seen a flash of it – otherwise, I'd still have no idea what hit me.

I fall to the floor, the adrenaline rush finally fading away and the pain flooding my nerves. It seems that my wound is fairly mortal as well.

"You're not bad… I'm glad you turned out like this." Junpei says. "You could definitely have done it… There's not a Shadow in this tower that you couldn't kill."

"Then I can relax, I guess…" If what he said was true, the others shouldn't have any trouble getting to the top.

I stare at the ceiling, waiting for death to take me. It seemed like this was it – this would be the moment.

"I've got a feeling that Ryoji's laughing his ass off right about now." I sigh, letting fatigue overtake me.

Eventually I can't feel anything anymore – and only a moment later I knew no more.

* * *

We eventually reach the thirtieth floor. As expected there wasn't a soul around, so we were able to keep to the timeframe I had given Amada. Of course while we loitered around for fifteen minutes, Juno suddenly falls to her knees.

"…There's…There's so many…!"

"What's going on?" I rush to her side.

"Shadows… They were… Hah, I see… They were all hiding underground – all of them. They know we're too far up the tower to escape…!" She suddenly freezes.

"What's –"

"She's here… Fuuka… She's coming… Look, we need to get moving."

"The elevator's a no-go, so what're we in for?" Shinjiro once again looks to me for direction.

"We can't exactly scale the walls… But what about Amada?"

"Let Ken take care of his own business." Shinjiro speaks with some finality in his voice.

"But surely you understand –" Juno tries to speak, but Shinjiro cuts her off.

"If Ken's going to die, it's going to be after he gets his job done. He'll be fine." Shinjiro seems sure of that, as unlikely as it seemed.

I decide to trust his judgment. "Then we head up. Juno, what's the safest route to take?"

"The stairs. But only to the eightieth floor. You'll have to find some other way to make the last twenty…"

"Don't you mean _we'll _have to find some other way?" I point out her statement, even though I have a fairly good idea of why she'd said it like that to begin with.

I didn't appreciate the idea of my group breaking off one by one, but what Juno had to do was fairly important – she had to face herself. Something that certainly couldn't be put off.

"Same deal. Fifteen minutes." I tell her.

She laughs. "Don't wait up."

With that I made my way to the stairwell with Shinjiro in tow. As we make it to the door, the entire building suddenly shakes violently, causing me to lose my footing. While Shinjiro helps me up Juno ends up hyperventilating as her heightened senses start to over react from the sudden surge.

In a matter of moments a hole opens up in the floor – and a humanoid figure with spider-like legs emerges from within it. I can make the connection visibly – this was Fuuka Yamagishi as a Shadow.

I almost move to help Juno who despite her condition rises to her feet to face her Shadow.

"There's nothing you can do here. Go." She speaks curtly. "This is between me and her." I almost hesitate once again. When this happened to me – when I had to face myself, weren't there people around me? Didn't I have people to rely upon? Juno was about to face herself alone – but in the end, perhaps that was what had to be done. Perhaps Juno didn't care for her outward appearance – perhaps she just wanted to save Fuuka. To accept the reality that she had denied for so long.

"Let's go." I tell Shinjiro, who then opens the door to the stairwell. In the moment that he does, a large vine shaped like some sort of spike flies in our direction, but Shinjiro sees it coming and blocks it with his axe.

I turn as Shinjiro pulls me into the stairwell, watching as Juno deflects a second spike and readies herself to take on quite possibly the most difficult challenge one can face…

* * *

_The Fate of Juno_

It was just so pitiful. It was so pitiful that I could almost cry. I couldn't see anything in her – she was about as empty as I was. There wasn't anything she wanted to say to me – I had thousands of things to tell her, but in the end she wouldn't hear any of it. I decide that if there was any time to strike, it would be now.

But I couldn't even properly describe Fuuka as she was now. Her face was all that remained of her that was recognizable. Her body was likely deformed underneath that black gown, but her massive, bony arms coupled with her equally as bony hands made her seem like more of a monster than anything else.

Without so much as a word she seemed to grow massive pants out of the ground, coated in thorns that seem to radiate with some very intense heat. The thorns shoot out all at once, flying towards me with blinding speed. I quickly move to dodge, but several of them find homes in my right leg as I stumble to the ground. The moment they make contact with my skin my entire leg starts to seize, leaving me flailing about on the floor. Fuuka extends her left arm, creating a massive string of thorn covered bushes that flew out of the wall and straight into me.

Expecting a similar effect from these thorns, I manage to worm out of the way with much difficulty as my leg finally stops – it goes completely numb, but I can still move around on it. I leap out of the way and use the wall as a stepping stone – I manage to dodge the next two waves of thorny bushes mid air and ready my dagger. I plunge it into Fuuka's side, causing her to let out a shriek. In the next instant her arms grab a hold of me before I can so much as get any distance between us and she holds me in place, wrapping her hands around me ever so tightly. Her intention is clearly to crush me in her grasp, and with her inhuman strength she probably could do it.

I manage to swing my left leg, sending a dagger hidden in a recession in my shoe flying into her side once again. The pain causes her to drop me, and in that moment I yank the dagger closest to me out of her side, backing away instantly. But as I do Fuuka creates another mass of thorn bushes that collide with me, sending me flying into the wall. My entire right side is flaring – I had no control over any of it, and Fuuka was well aware of it.

She extends her arm again, this time creating what appears to be a long sword with a rose for a hilt out of the mass of plants on the wall behind her. She's already twice my size and the sword is built to scale – one swing of that thing would put me out of my misery rather instantly.

I begin to struggle. I throw the dagger I'm still holding on to in her direction, but she clearly sees it this time and avoids it rather effortlessly. I reach behind me drawing yet another dagger and attempting to do much the same as Fuuka slowly stalks towards me, her eyes now practically glowing with that red haze.

Fuuka lets out a sharp cry and swings the sword, jamming it into my right side. If not for the fact that I couldn't feel a thing, I'd be screaming in pain right about now. It seemed as if the sword wasn't meant to slice – it was only cutting into my side, leaving a massive gash that only became larger when she rips the sword out of it.

In that moment, when I was most helpless, I call to him.

"Ryoji…!" I barely manage to gasp.

He appears above me, letting out a cry of his own. He swings his massive katana towards Fuuka, catching her completely off guard and leaving a massive gash along her right arm. He then backs away slightly to avoid the sword's swing and positions his blade above him and plunges downward.

Fuuka is pierced through the chest. She lets out a scream before using the sword and sending Ryoji into the far wall. At this point I can still move despite my profuse bleeding, and so I ram another dagger into her stomach, this time lazily slumping to the side as the small blade makes its mark. I had no energy left to escape. But when I open my eyes Fuuka is leaning backward, her upper body lifelessly hanging backward like a branch from a tree. She gasps for air several times before suddenly returning to an upright position. Staring down at me with more hatred than I've ever seen in an expression before, she raises her hands to her chest –and without warning rips it open.

My eyes widen – I'm not entirely aware of it at first, but the moment drops of her blood fall onto me I suddenly bolt upward.

"Fuuka, what're you do –"

_Leave me. _

"What're you saying…? Leave you? Do you know how impossible it is for me to do that?!"

She reaches into her chest, and with several sharp spasms she pulls out her heart, now a small black orb of condensed energy.

_There's no point anymore._

"That's not true…! This whole time I've wanted to tell you – it's not too late! You can still make a difference, you always could!"

_I don't want to fight anymore… Look at me. There's no sense to this._

"But doing this isn't going to make things any different! Dying won't let you escape from everything –"

_As long as I go someplace that isn't here… I'll be happy with just that._

"Fuuka, I…"

_All my friends are dead._

_The person I love is dead. _

_Even if you go on, I don't have anything to cling to._

_I don't want to fight._

_Even if it's my responsibility._

_I just want to disappear._

_But it's never enough._

_I don't care about avenging anyone. _

_Killing the man atop the tower isn't even enough._

"What're you saying…?!"

_It's useless. It's all useless._

_You shouldn't have come here._

_And look at you… Now you're dying. _

_And so am I._

_Let's just leave it at that._

"At least I'll…At least I'll have died for something."

_You died for nothing. _

_But that's okay._

_I died for even less…_

With that she spoke no more… And in a few moments I could feel myself slipping away.

This isn't how I wanted this to end, Fuuka.

"I'm so sorry…"

I'm sorry.

But it's too late now.

I should've just accepted your fate. I should've just let you go on. You could've probably lived a long life. Maybe even have gotten married to someone and had kids. Maybe your heart could fix itself over time. But I kept fighting it. I kept fighting so you'd never forget who you were.

But all it did was cause this.

I'm so sorry.

But I won't ask for forgiveness.

After all, that won't do me any good where I'm going…

And so I slipped away, falling into an endless darkness with no end in sight…

* * *

The trek to the eightieth floor would've been long winded enough _without _the surplus of Shadows pouring in through the shattered windows and ascending the stairwell faster than we could. Ultimately Shinjiro did most of the fighting as I still couldn't use Yamato Takeru excessively, but I wasn't going to maintain my dead weight status any longer, so I had to take part in the carnage as well.

The Shadows were vast and of extremely varying strength. If Shinjiro weren't here with me I'd likely be dead by now, considering how some of these Shadows were likely stronger than I could handle on my own. Of course not even someone like me was delusional enough to expect to win a fight in Shinjuku. Yet here I was, fighting for my life with Shinjiro, the only person I'd ever think of doing this sort of thing with. After all, he was the closest thing to a friend that I had, even if what connection we had was a far cry from friendship to begin with.

The fighting never seemed to stop as we prevailed through wave after wave of Shadows, hoping that either the Shadows would cease fighting or we would reach the eightieth floor before we simply couldn't fight anymore.

Eventually, as the fighting continues, I find myself pressed against an exit to the stairwell as Shinjiro continues the fighting a few feet away from me. I manage to finish off the Shadow in front of me with little issue, but I'm grabbed by another only a foot or so away. Shinjiro kills this one with his axe – but then something suddenly comes to him.

"Naoto… This is our stop."

I follow his eyes and read the plate on the side of the wall. Indeed – this was the eightieth floor. I wonder when we stopped paying attention to what floor we were on – we'd have tripped explosives had we gone any higher… But with that in mind…

"One more floor?"

"Sounds like a plan." Apparently Shinjiro had figured out what I had planned.

We make our way through the masses of Shadows, killing one only for two to take its place. But eventually we find ourselves at the stairs, and without hesitation we dash up them, heading for the exit to the eighty-first floor with as much speed as we could muster.

Behind us, the explosives Juno had warned us about go off without delay, claiming the entire flight of stairs and the Shadows that had been chasing us with it. We make it through the doorway, narrowly avoiding the blast.

"Something just occurred to me." I inform Shinjiro as we catch our breath.

"What?"

"If we had set off any of the explosives on the lower levels, wouldn't the whole tower have come down?"

"Probably. Not sure why that's important."

"The only reason we knew of the explosives in the first place was due to Juno's ability, right? I don't think King Leo would want to destroy his own tower, so…"

"So he knew we had her with us?"

"Exactly… Even though it would be impossible for him to have known."

"How exactly would that be impossible?"

"Think about it. Nobunaga clearly works alone. Even if he's talked with the king in the past, the two aren't allies. That much I gathered from our fight. Aside from that, there's no way they could've known."

"But don't they have Fuuka with them?"

"From what Juno told me, Yamagishi can only pick up signals, not identify them. Juno can identify signals – Fuuka only retained the reception part of their power when she split from the body. The only way he could've known would've been if we were witnessed _as a group_ by one of his associates…"

"…" Shinjiro hesitates to respond.

"Tell me… When did you realize that Iori set us up?"

Shinjiro grimaces. "Truth be told, I didn't even think about it until Ken did."

"So Amada figured it out on his own…" I sigh. This made things complicated – it would certainly explain the sudden attack, but now that the group was split up things were far more complicated than they needed to be. "…I suppose we just have to throw all our cards on the table now, huh?"

"Sounds like it. We can still get to the top… We just need to figure out which section isn't rigged on our own."

"That's another thing… If the king didn't rig all of the floors, then what was the point of rigging them in the first place?"

"Hell if I know. The guy sounds like a prick to begin with."

"He is – I can tell you that much myself."

We fall silent, our current dilemma needing resolving – and quickly.

"…I've got an idea." Shinjiro suddenly speaks.

"What?"

"One of the elevators isn't rigged right?"

"…"

"Our plan is to get to the top, right? Then let's do things this way –"

"I don't like it."

"You have any better ideas?"

"…" I have no response for him.

"Then we'll do it like this. One of us has to make it up no matter what happens, right?"

He had a point.

We called for both elevators – one of them was doubtlessly rigged, while the other wasn't. There was a good chance that both would trip explosives if we rode them to the top, so we both decided to stop at the ninety-ninth floor.

By our logic, one of the elevators would doubtlessly explode, while the other would travel safely to the top.

One of us would die here. That was a given. But the other would make it to the top and have a chance at killing the king.

It was a very grim plan. But considering who came up with it, I can hardly be surprised.

I take a deep breath and enter the elevator as it arrives at the floor. Shinjiro's arrives at the same time and without any hesitation we enter and press the button for the ninety-ninth floor.

I close my eyes. I expect to be the one to end up dead, but the explosion I had been expecting never comes. The elevator arrives on the ninety-ninth floor without a hitch.

I quickly exit, quickly ensuring that there was no one around –

And as I turn around, Shinjiro suddenly emerges from his elevator, completely unharmed.

"Still alive?" He jokes with as serious a face as possible.

I sigh with relief. "Somehow." I couldn't help but wonder if King Leo anticipated this – if he'd set this up on purpose just to have some sadistic fun.

Shinjiro then points to an oddly placed set of stairs leading upward.

"Looks like that's where we're headed."

Without another word, we head towards the stairs. But in that moment, as I had almost expected, another massive quake shakes the building as Shadows pour in from the windows and the floor – Shadows of gargantuan size, barely able to fit in the room, heading straight towards us.

"I had a feeling…" Shinjiro sighs.

With that we start fighting. But this fight – the longer its lasts the more futile it becomes. There's little doubt in my mind that this fight won't be winnable – we'd only just avoided a bad situation in the stairwell, and we'd been more or less physically drained because of it. If this fight went on, neither of us would be able to defeat the king at the top, let alone live long enough to reach him.

I knew it was coming – I knew it was coming, and so I already had my response for it ready.

"Naoto."

"Absolutely not."

He laughs. Rather dejectedly, but he laughs. "If it's gonna be one of us, it's gonna be you."

"And why is that?"

"…You're still not sold on this whole idea, are you?"

"I don't know why it has to be _me_… I've done enough terrible things for a thousand people, and you're all so willing to just throw your lives away… Shouldn't _I _have to atone for the things I've done? Why do you all have to throw yourself away in my place? I don't get it…!"

At this point the others were already dead.

That makes three people – three people who have died in my place.

And now Shinjiro was about to become a fourth.

I couldn't let this continue.

I didn't deserve this.

I want to accept death myself. I want to die now. I'm not afraid of death – I want it, ever so desperately.

"Think of it like this. We've gotta leave something behind, don't we?"

"What're you saying?"

"There's a reason why we're alive, even now. As for you, you need to make up for what you did, right?"

"I can't atone for what I've done, no matter how hard I try."

"You can stop what you started, right? Right now, I'm here so you can do that."

"Why?!"

"…A long time ago, someone who trusted me died. And now Aki's gone and died too." Shinjiro rams his axe into another Shadow. "Right now I'm living with the life both of them should have instead. So I'm going to use it to keep the same thing from happening to you."

"There's no point – can't you just avenge everyone in my place?"

"You're the only one who can do that kind of thing. Just leave me to my side of things."

"I won't."

"You're going to. There's no point in you dying. Not yet."

"But there is for you?!"

"I've told you a thousand times, but you just never listen. I'm already dead. So just let me come to peace with that, alright?"

I don't really have a response for him. There was no changing his mind – he was willing to die here for my sake, even if I didn't deserve it.

My death was necessary – but only for my own ends. I wanted to die because I'd already wasted my opportunity to make things right. Shinjiro wanted to die so I could have another one.

I couldn't fathom why he'd do something like this – but in the end I couldn't bring myself to debate any further. That evening in Hokkaido came back to haunt me – clearly this was something he needed to do – his suffering would continue endlessly if I let him live on like this.

Could it be that Shinjiro simply had to die? That was what he believed. And in the end I couldn't change that.

"…Thank you… I…"

"That's enough. You need to get going." He turns away from me and my eyes drift towards the stairs.

I don't look back. I continue ahead, leaving Shinjiro to face his doom head on…

And in the end I can't understand why he did it.

I'll never understand why.

But I couldn't waste this last chance I've been given.

I had to succeed. I had to prove victorious.

Otherwise, everything will be in vain.

* * *

_The Fate of Naoto_

I didn't want to have been the only one left. If only I'd said something – if only I'd stopped Amada, maybe they wouldn't have all thrown themselves away so easily. But despite that I had to press on – King Leo would have to perish for what he'd done, and if I had to be the one to end his life then so be it. I kill several more Shadows as I make my way towards the final staircase – the staircase that would lead me to the top floor. It wouldn't be much longer –

Eventually, I reach the top of the staircase and two massive doors, adorned with silver and carved from the most expensive wood, greet me. I take a deep breath – this was it. This was the moment. The moment I could either turn back and live or enter the room and stare death in the face.

There was only once choice I could make the way things were now. The others were likely dead. And if I were to turn back now – I'd rather die right now than have to deal with that.

I enter the room – and sitting before me, on the far end of the room, in a massive velvet seat that served as a throne, was King Leo.

He claps. He claps, applauding my arrival.

"Bravo! Bravo! I'd expect nothing less of my Autumn Empress!"

I cringed – that name. The name that came from my days in the Acid Legion. Of course he'd bring that up – he knew who I was. He knew why I was here. And he likely knew that this would happen one day. Even then he let me go about my business and now we've finally met again.

"Honestly, you're practically a national hero. All while hiding behind that gas mask… Certainly brings back some pretty ironic memories, wouldn't you say?"

"I have no interest in what you have to say."

"Hah, you're such a shitty liar. Right now you're thinking about what I meant by ironic memories. You have no idea why I'd say something like that to you, but you've got a few reasons already built up in that underused brain of yours."

At that moment I notice the previously stationary mechanical woman standing next to him who promptly snickers.

"Is something funny?"

"Eh, nothin' much. You're just a bit more dumb lookin' than I was expectin'." She speaks almost as vehemently as Leo had, with that odd accent of hers making her seem all the more obnoxious. "You're _sure _this runt's the girl you're thinkin' of?" She directs her question towards Leo.

"She really doesn't look it, does she?"

"Was the sex good at least?" She responds.

Leo laughs before sending me another heartfelt sneer. "Accept it – you've got as much of a lid on yourself as I have." Speaking in a very loud whisper, he continues his tirade. "And just so you know… I'm fuckin' _crazy_." He laughs.

"This has gone on long enough. You have to know what I'm here for."

He gives an exaggerated yawn. "Yeah yeah, you're here to kill me and put an end to the 'eternal suffering and hardship' I'm exercising on the people of Japan. Big deal. You think I haven't been ready for this sort of thing?"

"It doesn't matter how ready you are – I'm putting an end to this, here and now."

I raise my pistol, but the moment I do so the mechanical girl's condescending expression fades instantly as she takes a step forward.

"Labrys…" Leo speaks in a very different tone. "This should be the last of it."

She closes her eyes and nods her head, smiling softly before her eyes shoot open and she stares me down, glaring daggers at me as if I were the worst person on earth.

"If your intentions are to kill the king, then I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to kill you." She speaks in a far more serious tone of voice.

"Getting serious, are we?" I aim my pistol with absolutely no intention of firing it – it was fairly obvious that this mechanical woman would hardly feel a bullet. Instead, I had to gauge her. I had to learn her strengths and weaknesses. Otherwise this would be a losing battle no matter what I did.

In response to my offensive stance, she raises her left arm and retracts the tips of her fingers. In a matter of instances I'm under heavy machine gun fire, but fortunately enough I was able to dive behind one of the pillars in the room. Realizing how this was going to become a ranged battle, I quickly make a mental note of the layout of the room.

The throne room is more or less a wide open rectangular space, save for the six pillars positioned in groups of three on the two ends of the room. Standing behind any of these pillars, the machine gun fire can't reach me. However, these pillars seemed more decorative than anything else – I doubted this woman would avoid shooting them if she could take me out in the process.

I quickly move to another pillar, further up the row on the left side, avoiding another barrage of fire. I certainly had cover, even if only temporary, so there was certainly a chance for me to formulate a counter attack.

Even then, I didn't see much hope in this battle. I might've had a very slight advantage, but what could I possibly do against someone who could kill me fairly instantaneously? If I were to be shot I'd die, fairly obviously. I had one chance at subduing her, but even then the chances I could do so successfully were very low to begin with. I had no way to directly observe her actions. She likely had more weaponry up her sleeve even if she ran out of ammo for her machine guns, so waiting things out wasn't an option either.

This woman was a machine – she likely can't be killed as easily as a normal human. There was only one way I could have even a slight fighting chance – that would be to use Yamato Takeru and hopefully neutralize her as fast as possible. But even then I wondered if I could make any amount of progress doing such a thing.

Ultimately, all I knew for certain at that moment was that she hadn't moved an inch. She was still standing in place, waiting for me to emerge once again.

…Come to think of it…

She could kill me fairly instantly if she wanted to. If she tried to follow me there would be no way I could outrun her. Yet there she stands, motionless, waiting for me to make a move. Perhaps it was a taunt? I doubted it – her entire attitude had changed every so drastically only moments ago – she was out for blood, but it wasn't for personal satisfaction, at any rate.

I've heard the others mention a machine like this one before – a machine that took the shape of a woman and was just as human as all those around her. Perhaps there was deeper meaning in that?

Leo's words come to mind –

_This should be the last of it._

The last of what? The last line of our offense?

Or perhaps the last of the killing?

This woman – a moment ago, she apologized to me. She apologized for having to kill me.

Something clicked. She was fighting against her will – or rather, she was fighting because she had to. But why? Why would she fight, and what would she be fighting for?

I lean out to take aim with my pistol, firing off a single shot in her direction. She puts out her arm and absorbs the shot in its entirety, firing off another short burst of fire as I vanished behind another pillar. I couldn't let her realize I was stalling for time, so I had to keep moving.

Something else occurs to me in that moment.

Didn't she already more or less blatantly say what she was fighting for? I was here to kill Leo. And because of that she had to kill me. She was fighting for him – but why?

I jump out from behind the pillar, firing another shot. However, my shot wasn't particularly aimed at the woman – I was aiming for him, the king, sitting behind her.

She notices this and quickly moves to take the shot in his place. The bullet digs into her mechanical chest – it would be a fatal wound for any normal human. But in this instance my seemingly last ditch effort achieves nothing. She fires more bullets in my direction – I hear a rather familiar click. It would seem she'd run out of rounds and had to switch to something else. But that didn't change the fact that several bullets were flying towards me at blinding speeds, nor did it change the fact that I had no cover whatsoever.

Trying to kill Leo was pointless. She was too fast – she would effortlessly repel my attack every time. This I had only just learned – the hard way.

Was there a way out, as usual, there was one and only one.

In that moment I call to him, praying that he can save me. Yamato Takeru appears in front of me, taking the barrage of bullets in my place. My head heats up to the point where my brain might as well have been cooking, but despite the severe pain I manage to make my way across the room and behind another pillar.

"Feel free to run around as much as you want. It's not gonna make things any easier for you." Leo suddenly speaks. "Hey, I bet you're curious. You wanna know who killed Akihiko Sanada? It was this girl right here."

My eyes widen. I'm not really surprised, but even so I was having a hard time believing it. This mechanical woman I was fighting – _she _was the one who killed the strongest Persona user amongst us. And here I was, fighting her – to the death, at that.

I wonder – will I end up dying the same way?

"You'd best be careful… Get any preconceptions about this fight out of your head. You can't win – she's too perfect. Honestly, I'd just back off while I still can if I were you. You wouldn't wanna lose your head, right?" He laughs.

"Permission to trash this room?" The woman suddenly speaks.

Leo laughs. "Granted. Knock yourself out."

I hear mechanical parts moving rapidly. I'm not sure what she's planning, but whatever it was I had a feeling my only source of cover wouldn't prove to be very useful against it. And in another instant, the pillar I'm standing behind suddenly bursts. I wasn't able to see the attack, but whatever it was it apparently had the force to destroy a tall reinforced structure fairly instantly. I quickly roll out from behind it, blindly shooting in the direction the woman was standing before. I trip up on my recovery and end up sprawled out on the floor as my vision swims – the drugs were already having their effect. I was already losing my focus, even though the fight had barely even started.

I manage to pull myself together. But when the dust from the explosion settles, she's standing right there – two feet away from me, with a massive axe in her hands that's almost twice her size, staring down at me with an almost expressionless face.

But when did she move…?! The explosion happened a matter of seconds after that strange mechanical noise – how fast had she moved? And why hadn't I heard her?

In the end, it seemed as if it wasn't going to matter how she'd done it – she'd done it, and that alone was enough to spell my doom.

She readies the axe, her eyes locked with my own. And in that moment I can almost visualize it – the moment that Sanada died. She was about to do the same to me, right here and right now. But I see it coming, and a moment before my only chance for survival expires I move to the side, shooting at her in the process. I manage to score a solid hit, but even though the damage was minimal, she didn't complete her swing. As I rise to my feet and move behind her I notice this –

She didn't take any serious damage from my bullets. But she still had to absorb the recoil before she could move again – and at this close a range that meant I had a good five seconds before I'd have to avoid another attack.

A weakness? Or perhaps it wasn't as in the end knowing that wasn't enough to actually defeat her?

As I regain my footing and attempt to fire a round into the back of her head, she swings the axe, twisting her entire body and missing me ever so narrowly. I fire off a shot, but she avoids it by twisting herself in a very inhuman fashion, thrusting the axe into my legs and forcing me to the ground. Pain racks my lower body as my legs go numb – if I were hit with such a move again, I would doubtlessly be able to stand. I manage to roll away once again, firing off another round –

But as I do I fail to notice how close she is and how long the reach of the axe is. And in the moment I believe I have enough distance she slams the axe into the ground, the sharp end claiming my pistol and my right hand with it.

At first I don't register any of it. The pain was simply too great – but after a few seconds had gone by the sudden blood splatter and the massive surge of pain finally overtake my body.

My mouth opens, but I don't scream. Instead I simply stare blankly skyward, my eyes darting everywhere as my entire body grows cold. The woman stands above me, readying the axe for a final plunge downward – a final plunge that would doubtlessly end my life.

My eyes frantically search for a way out while my brain prepares to shut down – everything around me slows down as my state of shock seizes my entire body…

_Thou art I, and I am thou.  
__From the sea of thy soul I come.  
__I was once Sukuna Hikona, Patron of Vagrants.  
__I am Thanatos, Face of Death.  
__And I am Yamato Takeru, Martyr of Honor.  
__I am here to safeguard our truth.  
__And you are…  
__You are the third… You are the third power, yet to be awakened…  
__Rise up. Rise up and seize our truth.  
__Seize the truth that gives us strength.  
__For you are the last power that this soul shall reveal – _

I see it – I see it, but only for an instant. The moment the woman's axe begins to descend upon my neck. My eyes lock on to him – King Leo, sitting upon his marble throne, looking upon the scene, seemingly uncharacteristically pensive.

Shakily, I move my handless arm in his direction, my eyes regaining slight focus, even if only for a moment. In that instant our eyes meet, and he almost understands what is about to happen.

"…_Morning Star_…" I speak barely above a whisper.

Creating a blinding light that fills the entire room, a massive beam of pure, intensified energy soars across the room, hurtling towards Leo with blinding speeds. I can only see white now, but I severely doubt that my attack would miss. My visions swims again as I try to move my body, but I'm simply too drained to do much of anything as the beam continues to spill endlessly out of the hole in my arm. The beam seems to burst through the ceiling as I can hear the sound of crumbling structures. At this point, all I care to know is that the ceiling above me isn't falling down. The heat from the blast is intense – my arm is practically smoldering, and my blood literally boils.

The burst is so intense that if it had escaped the confines of the room, the entirety of Shinjuku would likely have taken notice of it. It was so raw and so intense that I, the person who had created it, could barely keep it in check myself… No, it's more accurate to say I have no control over it whatsoever, and it simply came about because I had spoken the incantation – the incantation I had spoken out of what I believed to be instinct. I had no idea what I had done, nor did I particularly understand why I had been able to do it. But in the end it had potentially ended this fight in my favor – something that I had thought was ever so impossible until now.

Eventually the burst dissipates, my arm shaking uncontrollably several times before the beam seems to simply stop. It seems to vanish completely, as suddenly as it had appeared, leaving a massive cloud of smoke behind, that fills my lungs, causing me to gag heavily. My right arm is no longer bleeding – it seemed that the wound had been seared shut from the intense burst. However, a massive gash has taken form in my side – it was bleeding, but not all that heavily. I couldn't quite feel the pain from it either – my entire nervous system was likely experiencing all sorts of technical difficulties right now.

I try to peer through the dust to see what has become of my opponent – the woman no longer stands near me, and no sound of delirious laughter can be heard. There is only silence.

Eventually the dust begins to clear. I can see the night sky through the massive hole in the tower – the hole that my attack had created.

And a few moments later, I hear a frantic noise –

…No, it was more exasperated than frantic. Someone was panting – someone in that smoke was afraid. Very afraid.

Eventually, I could see through it –

And there she stood, the mechanical woman, Labrys, with her entire left side mangled and ripped apart. Her arm, seemingly erased from existence. Her leg, crumbling to pieces. Her head, split open, her short-circuiting innards creating sparks. Her chest burned away, revealing the severely damaged glowing orb that likely served as her core. She is still standing with her axe, splattered with fresh blood likely from my open gash, handing lazily at her side, no longer poised to tear into my skull.

And Leo is still there, completely unharmed, standing behind her, the look of shock on his face ever so out of character. He steps forward towards her, but she speaks.

"Don't…I…I can…"

"_Enough!_" He shouts. "Don't throw your life away…!"

"I'm…Not alive… Remember?"

She stares blankly forward, not even focusing on me anymore. She drops her axe and raises her remaining arm, stuttering several times as her damaged motors grind together awkwardly. I hear a loud, low pitched grinding noise as smoke starts to rise from her opened skull.

Leo takes another step towards her, but she shouts this time.

"_No_!"

Her eyes then start to glow a shade of red as smoke continues to rise from her failing body.

"Your world is… Beautiful… I won't let… Your… dream die like… Mine did…"

Her arm then lights up with a similar red glow as she stumbles forward wither her one working leg. I have nothing left to hit her with. It was simply a miracle that not only was Leo spared but Labrys was still standing. There was truly no way I could possibly win this fight.

I hear a familiar shattering sound.

"…_Ariadne…!_"

"Labrys, you –" Leo shouts, but his sentence is muted by the appearance of a tall, mechanical Persona, much like the one Nobunaga used in his battle with Ken – of course. She was the same as the other android. Of course she had a Persona. But this feeling – it was so familiar that despite how blank my memory was I could recall this feeling instantly. It was the feeling of the first time I summoned Sukuna Hikona – she had awakened to her power, even if it would only serve as a last ditch effort to ensure that Leo would survive.

Two massive red vines extend towards me and wrap around me extremely tightly. It seemed she was planning to crush me to death – something that I had no counter for whatsoever.

But only a matter of moments later, the remnants of the left side of her head fall apart. Her right eye goes wide as her Persona suddenly vanishes, dropping me onto the floor.

It is then that she falls over and Leo runs to her side. Lifting what's left of her in his arms.

"You're a fool." He speaks, his anger suppressed by sadness.

She smiles at him. "I don't…need you to tell me… Somethin' like that…"

"Why? You knew you were at your limit…! Why would you…?!" He speaks, his voice somewhat more furious than it had been a moment ago.

"Only…Only for you… I'd do…anything…"

And with that she spoke no more.

I can no longer see Leo's face. His head falls and his expression is concealed by the shadows. He begins to shake uncontrollably.

He breathes heavily, his fury quiet yet intense.

And in a moment, his voice diluted with both intense sadness and intense hatred, he speaks a name. A name that sets my head on fire as a river of repressed memories flood back into my head. A name I knew all too well – a name that I never thought I'd ever hear again, although I hadn't even remembered it before just now.

"_Susano-o!_"

The space around him warps and out of a cloud of dark smoke came a gargantuan beast – a beast carrying a long, ornate sword shaped like a willow tree covered from blade to hilt in moss, with the head of a toad, the fangs of a lion, and long flowing purple hair, stained with blood and tarnished by sporadic bald spots. It was truly a monster – a monster that aimed its massive sword towards me with the intention to kill.

Yamato Takeru appears on his own, fighting the beast without any restraint. The two lock swords and exchange blows, although neither one appears to take damage. Leo, meanwhile, seems to lose control of his body while I struggle to stand, my head searing from the sudden surge of memories.

That Persona… That name…

This is…

Then if that's true, then…

…I remember.

I remember that time, three years ago.

I remember that town. I remember that name.

I look upon King Leo. But I no longer see King Leo.

I can see it, through his tear stricken face. Through his murderous glare as he forces himself to stop shaking.

I remember. I remember Inaba, and I remember him…

I finally see his face in my memory... And I stare at the man before me.

"H-Hanamura…Senpai…?" I manage to speak as I almost stumble forward.

I don't want to accept it, but he offers no denial of my inquiry.

This all had to be some sort of joke.

There was simply no way – no way that Yosuke Hanamura had turned into this. Into this man that wanted to watch the world burn.

Yosuke Hanamura is not King Leo.

That I want to believe…

But that isn't true.

One of my closest friends enslaved the world. One of my closest friends has to die.

That's the truth, no matter which way I looked at it.

I had uncovered the truth, even if just a small part of it…

I wanted to forget.

I wanted to forget I'd seen anything.

Perhaps _this _is why I became what I am –

Before I could think it over any longer Susano-o manages to score a hit on Yamato Takeru, sending me staggering back slightly. Yamato Takeru then does the same to Susano-o, causing Leo – or rather, Yosuke – to stagger backward.

I was almost hesitating to continue this fight. After all, I no longer had such a solid reason for wanting to kill King Leo – he is the only tie I have left to that world I left behind. And no matter how twisted he was, the more I looked at him the more I saw of who he used to be. I couldn't kill Yosuke. But I was supposed to kill King Leo. That was the purpose. And here I am, facing him head on while he's completely defenseless.

And I refuse to kill him.

I'm going to fail again.

I'm going to waste more lives.

I'm going to take and never return what I've taken.

I'm just incapable.

I'm too weak.

I shouldn't be here. It should be someone else.

Eventually Susano-o slams its strangely shaped weapon into the ground creating a massive shockwave that sends King Leo flying across the room and into a wall. I on the other hand am the true target of the shockwave, and so the floor beneath me starts to crumble away from the impact. Yamato Takeru comes to my defense as I manage to stumble away from the falling surface, using my remaining hand to prop myself up.

Leo still clings to Labrys for dear life. He refuses to let her go.

Yamato Takeru starts to slow down as my brain finally starts to shut down from the severe amount of stress it's been put through. But despite that he continues to fight the deranged Susano-o, who still shows no signs of weakness. But I knew at one point the fight would become too intense for Leo's already crumbling mind before too long.

As I slowly shut myself down Leo suddenly places Labrys against the wall behind him and stands, staring me down with tired eyes. It would seem that calling Susano-o had done some serious damage. But despite that he faces me, likely aiming to end my life before he loses his opportunity. I try to stand, but I'm simply too weak at this point to do so.

He reaches into his coat and pulls out a dagger – or rather, two daggers. I recognize them immediately – they're old and worn, but they are clearly his daggers. The daggers he held as his only prized possessions.

"I'll kill you…" He whispers before he stalks towards me. I have no way to defend myself, and so I more or less brace myself for certain doom.

But as he draw closer he suddenly drops the daggers, gripping his head in pain. With an excruciating scream, Susano-o suddenly vanishes and reappears above him, letting out a massive roar. In another instant a large burst of green fire fills the room, sending Yamato Takeru spiraling to the ground from the sheer force of impact and knocking me off my feet once more. In another moment, Yamato Takeru bursts from the inside and Thanatos rises to fight Susano-o. The two start to clash swords as Leo continues to thrash about, Susano-o responding by creating bursts of green fire sporadically. The two continue their bout as I attempt to stand once again.

Only a little bit more, I can feel it… This fight would be over very soon.

I try to make my way over to Leo – if I could somehow neutralize him right now, the green fire would likely stop. I'm not sure taking him out would even contribute to stopping Susano-o in the slightest, but I had to take a leap of faith.

I manage to stand and I begin to stumble towards him, readying the knife I'd had with me with my 'free' hand. If I could just stab him right now, this would end. I'd have accomplished my task, even if I were to die here.

Leo is a symbol of terror…

But as I draw closer, my will once again wavers.

Leo is Yosuke.

Yosuke is my friend…

"This why… You'll never achieve anything…!" Leo growls. "You've killed children in front of their mothers… You've watched women get raped and men be tortured to death… You've done a little of both yourself…! And here you are, staring down the biggest prick in the world and what're you doing…?! Face it, you're _just as fucked up as I am_…!" He howls, his position on the border of sanity distorting his laughter.

I ready the knife, intending to plunge it into his chest, but I continue to hesitate.

I said I didn't care about the truth. I said I was going to do this no matter what.

So why can't I kill him…?!

It's because he's right –

I can't do it because if I do I'll go insane.

I can't live with this – knowing that I've closed myself off from my past forever. If I even tried I wouldn't be able to handle the pressure. I'd fall apart at the seams.

…But then if I can't live with it…

Maybe _now _it's okay?

Maybe _now_ I can die…?

In that moment, my resolve is sealed tight. I lean forward, the knife drawing closer to his black heart…

…

But I stop. I simply can't do it.

I can't. It's literally impossible.

My body refuses to move – I'm literally incapable of killing him…?!

What is…

Is this _you_…?

Is this you, who this body rightfully belongs to…?

Is this your way of telling me…

That I'm making a mistake?

Thanatos then suddenly appears in front of me, shielding me from another burst of green fire.

And then I hear his voice once again.

_You cannot kill the Magician.  
__You two are not destined to fight.  
__Not yet.  
__And as you are now that time shall never come for as long as you live.  
__This bout is nothing but senseless farce.  
__Live. You have to live.  
__There is meaning in your living…  
__You must seize our truth –  
__The truth that gives us the strength to triumph over any evil…!  
__Only you…_

With that, Thanatos vanishes entirely and I am left there, the knife in my hand close enough to Leo's chest that I could end his life with a slight flick of my wrist.

I stare at him – at his blank expression as the effects of that last burst of green fire settle in. He likely has very little strength himself – but he seems almost prepared to accept his death.

Once again I try to move my hand in such a way that the knife would make its mark – but to no avail. The moment I lower my weapon my arm moves freely…

I laugh – I laugh a dejected laugh.

Leo looks at me, confusion apparent in his gaze.

"Look at us. What did we amount to?" Was there any meaning in my words? Did I truly want to know? Did it matter?

"We're just faces in the crowd." He answers. "We're not supposed to be anything else."

"Then why all of this?"

"I'm just tired of playing second banana. That's all." He remarks with a tired smirk. I didn't quite get what he had meant by that, but before I could contemplate it any further he punches me square in the face, causing me to stagger.

But in another instant Susano-o creates a massive fissure that cuts through the very foundation of the throne room…!

Leo screams in pain as Susano-o thrashes about one final time before seemingly exploding into a burst of light…!

The floor beneath me shakes before the entire surface seems to give way – but no, the floor wasn't falling apart, it was sliding…?

The building – or at least this part of the building – it was collapsing, and at an angle. And in a matter of moments I was going to start sliding with the floor –

I slip and fall as Leo tumbles backward, falling towards the massive gap in the wall as the ceiling starts to cave in. Labrys' corpse slides out the gap, but Leo fails to notice. But before I can watch any more I start sliding. Eventually the building has tipped enough that I fall out of the open side, facing the city' skyline, the top of Shinjuku tower following us on our descent.

I can still move, despite the situation, and so I avoid chunks of falling rubble, searching for Leo –

But Leo was falling right along with me, having held onto the edge of the building long enough to ensure that he'd fall second. As he descends upon me he slams into me with what energy he had left and we end up wrestling midair, although it was more a matter of me attempting to force him off of me. We exchange several blows as more remnants of the top of the tower descend upon us. Eventually Leo is struck by a large structure and he is forced away from me –

And in that moment the rear side of the throne room finally catches up to us – there's a small gap in the wall that I try to maneuver towards, and with some luck I manage to slip past it. Leo manages the same, but at some point he had apparently reacquired one of his daggers, which he now holds, poised to stab me…!

I manage to move out of the way as he draws closer, trying to stab at me. Luckily enough I avoid the swing by a hair – although at this point luck had nothing to do with it – and use what strength I had left to slam my fist into his face.

He takes the recoil from the punch and then readies the dagger again –

But then he sees her – or rather what's left of her. Labrys' corpse descends past us, and without a second thought Leo reaches out towards her.

If not for the intense pressure I would've called out to him – to tell him to stop, of all things.

But he grabs onto her, embracing what was left of her. And together, their combined weight causes their descent to accelerate and before long they disappear into the darkness below…

And before long I would share in their fate.

But somehow I had a feeling that it wasn't over, even though it had come to this.

But I have a hard time believing that as I descend to my death.

I stare at the full moon, shining down upon it all.

This was it. I would die, even though I couldn't confirm Leo's own death… But no human could survive such a fall, and I was no different.

I got a view of the tower – it would seem that the upper part of the tower had been ripped off completely. It was only the top three floors, but the entire structure had been damaged significantly. The tower would not be able to operate –

Such a thing – such a thing would surely cause despair to grip the general public. Chaos was forced upon their daily lives – and soon, the effect would pile up. Things would change after this moment – likely for the worse. I was almost glad that I wouldn't be alive to witness it.

I continue my descent. I close my eyes, as the stench of death becomes ever stronger.

Not much longer…

Soon… Very soon…

It'll…All be…

* * *

_The Great Seal_

The massive structure that once comprised the Great Seal lies in ruin around me. In its place is a new structure – a new structure without a host. A structure that instead was composed of one hundred souls – the souls of Persona users whose powers now belonged to me. I secretly hoped that it would all fail – because the moment I set that man free things would fall apart all the more readily. And so they did.

I lie there, fairly motionlessly, my heat resting on Elizabeth's lap. Despite everything that had happened, here she was, tending to me as if I were a child.

I can't get that scene out of my memory – the moment he was freed from his prison, followed by the moment he vanished into the void –

It was all so hard to believe, that someone such as I would free something so horrifying. Containing it was nigh impossible, and so I was forced to let it go.

For the strain the seal placed on him was too great. For he had been twisted by the discord of humanity to the point where he became more of an entity that kept humanity from dying, rather than an entity that kept humanity alive.

For he had become Erebus, human malice, itself – and while Nyx was still locked away Erebus would engulf the nation in despair and soon it and the rest of the world would face the extinction that the foolish boy Hanamura had wanted.

Elizabeth apologized. She apologized and tended to me in my weakened state. Even now she remains at my side, even though the one she sought after was long gone.

"I'm sorry…" She whispers again. "I never understood, not even for a moment, what you really were…"

"You weren't supposed to understand."

"I still cannot forgive myself…" She almost weeps cradling my mask.

"There's no sense to your tears. Now, we must plan."

"But what can be done?" She is visually surprised by my statement.

I clear my throat. "Something can always be done, my dear. But for now, we must wait."

"Wait for what?"

"Wait for the four to appear, of course." I laugh slightly.

In the end, there was still one thing that was certain.

In this world, where none are truly left alive –

There will be the four.

And as long as there are the four, the world shall go on…

* * *

_The Border of Life and Death_

_You see her, do you not?  
__You see her struggling, yet you can do nothing.  
__You see her pain.  
__You see her lack of will to live.  
__You see her fate, laid bare before her.  
__You see her hopelessness.  
__You see her losing hope, yet you can do nothing about it.  
__You have already gone, long before she will.  
__You failed.  
__You can no longer save her.  
__You have no reason to exist anymore.  
__You threw everything you had on the table.  
__And you lost.  
__Yet here you are…_

_Yes, you can see her, can you not?  
__You were too impatient.  
__You made your choice too quickly.  
__You were careless.  
__But you can't be careless.  
__You weren't allowed to make mistakes.  
__And here you are._

…_But here I am._

_Yes, you can see her, can you not?  
__The Arcana are the means by which all is revealed…  
__And so here and now we shall reveal your last power…  
__The Fool – yes, the most foolish of fools.  
_…_You can see her, can you not?  
__You are Orpheus and she is Eurydice.  
__You are the Master of Strings…  
__So you shall play her a song.  
__A song of undying love…  
__A song of joy in experiencing it…  
__A song of despair in losing it…  
__A song of Origin…  
__A song of Armageddon…_

_You will be given one year…_

_So go forth and do not falter._

* * *

All that is required for time to march on is one person – one person with the capacity to know that there is time to march on. And so time marches on, and in the end it will deliver that one person to the same end that all people are destined to reach.

A room – a room that seems to have once been a small restaurant, built to serve guests and to entertain them. Such a room was made by man for man, to express some sort of emotion upon them, whether it be from the taste of the food or the sounds of the soft music. Such a place is built with emotion and to express emotion, regardless of who the owner is or what their motivations are.

In the end, when the room is no longer needed, such a room is lost and abandoned, desecrated, and in many cases demolished. And so this room stands, with tables overturned, the tapestry on the walls ripped asunder, the lights flickering and glasses with spilt drinks scattered across the floor. The room is abandoned. The room is left behind. The room is no longer needed. The room is vacant – save for one.

A man, short and old, wearing a tattered suit, half of his face scarred almost beyond recognition, his skin rough and dry, his eyes bloodshot and weak, sits upon a chair with three legs, somehow still able to sit up straight. He simply sits there, staring into the darkness before him. For him, there is nothing outside this room – and so this room is all he needs.

He has nothing – even his clothes are reduced to rags. But even then here he is – even then here he is, sitting and waiting for a guest that may never arrive. His demeanor expresses that of a man suffering ever so severely, yet the smile never fades from his face. His grin permanent. His mind unfaltering.

And so I found myself there…

I found myself there, in that room, standing before that man amidst the tarnished room, under the dim, flickering blue light.

He smiles at me. He smiles at me, even though as far as I could tell he had been just smiling in general. Our eyes meet. I'm unsure of what to make of him at first… But then he speaks.

"This place exists between dream and reality, mind and matter… It is a room that only those who have entered a contract may enter…" He laughs, his voice weak and hoarse. "…Welcome to the Velvet Room. My name is Igor…"

* * *

_**Author's Note **_

And so ends Part 1 of _Reverse Rebirth_.

Honestly, I have very little to say about it. It was essentially all introductions – something I've never had go on for four whole chapters before – and some wham episodes, if you catch my drift. This is the main reason why I want to hear what _you _have to say about it. So until that happens, Part 2 will be in limbo for awhile.

Now as for what I _do _have to say about this part of the story, I pretty much think of this as the Persona 3 arc of the story. The P3 characters had most of the focus, with Naoto hogging the spotlight at times because she's one of the main characters. Although at this point it's sort of impossible to figure out who the 'four' actually are, you can probably take a few guesses and come pretty close.

So as for what's to come? Part 2 is going to be the huge Persona 4 arc of the story (in other words, _all _your questions about that aspect will be answered…). Part 3 will more or less be the rising action part of the story while Part 4 will be where it all comes together SMT style. Look forward to it, and leave lots of reviews so I know there's interest.

So with that, I'll see you all whenever.


	9. Interlude: Seconds

_**Author's Note**_

Don't get too excited – unfortunately, I'm unable to resume my regular updating schedule for this fic, but I figured that I've gone long enough without updating it and decided to throw you a bone. So I've prepared for you all the first Interlude, which essentially functions as a bridge for Part 1 and Part 2. Because, yes, about 10,000 words of exposition is now needed before the start of Part 2.

Starting from Part 2, as all of the 'guess who I am' characters have already been introduced and there is no longer any need to hold back, the 'no OC' rule will be lifted. However, the number of new characters will not be excessive – there will be four and only four new characters (the reason should be fairly obvious), one of which will appear at a certain point in this chapter.

One thing I should probably note is that having finally played through Golden, the description of that one place where Raidou had the perspective for a bit is now visually entirely different. I'm going to eventually rectify this in the earlier chapter, but I'm just going to give you the heads up now.

Also, upon the start of Part 2, there will be some… aesthetic changes to the details found with the description of this fic. It's up to you to figure out why.

So, with that, I suppose it's time to start… But be careful, this chapter's decidedly more depressing than the last one – if you didn't think that was possible, you were wrong… Oh, you were _so, completely, undeniably _wrong.

...Yes, even more depressing than Akihiko's death scene. I'm not even joking.

* * *

_**Int.1 Seconds**_

_1:40 AM, Outside Shinjuku Tower  
__March 2__nd__, 2014  
__Ken Amada_

It all happened in a matter of seconds.

In a matter of seconds everything we'd worked for literally came crashing down around us.

In a matter of seconds we'd managed to plunge the city around us into a state of total chaos.

In a matter of seconds Leo's society came crashing down.

In a matter of seconds I realize that I'm witnessing all of this firsthand.

In a matter of seconds I realize that I'm not dead.

My ears are ringing and my vision is completely blurred, but I'm still alive. I knew the tower came down on top of me, but by some miracle I'd survived not only the crash, but the mortal wounds I'd sustained only a short while ago.

But I was still alive. Despite all of that I'd cheated death yet again.

I eventually manage to regain my bearings and stand up. I find myself in the middle of the lower lobby, now rife with a spreading fire and showered with rubble of all sorts. I look around for Junpei – he's nowhere to be seen. He's likely been crushed under the rubble – and the moment I remember how he had stabbed me, I realize that all of my wounds are healed.

I consider the reason why for a moment – but then I suddenly recall that an entire building has come crashing down around me and I desperately need to escape or waste my second – or possibly third or fourth – chance.

I manage to find a clear path through the rubble, although most of this area is already engulfed by the flames. I climb over fallen structures almost twice my size as I try to scope out an escape route through the thick smoke, trying my best not to breathe any of it in. I find myself moving through remnants of an elevator shaft and stepping over a few burning corpses as I finally make my way out of the pit of the disaster.

I find myself on a street almost a block away from the tower after a few minutes of frantic running. There wasn't any indication of where the disaster's area of effect petered out – but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that the collapse of a building as tall as the tower had been would create enough smoke and enough fire to engulf the entirety of Shinjuku.

I eventually settle for looking for the others – certainly I couldn't have been the only one to make it out alive. The others had to be _somewhere_, right?

I spend a good ten minutes running about like a lunatic, finding no traces of any survivors – of course if not for the prominence of that blue hat of hers I'd have run right past the disfigured body of Naoto Shirogane pressed into the gravel a few feet away from me.

I look again – and I notice something on top of her – I suddenly notice the small child standing over her.

The child turns towards me instantly – it's a young girl with black hair, likely no older than nine years old. She looks at me with pure contempt in her eyes. I begin to question if she's even real, but before I have a chance to ask her anything she runs off into the smoke. I call out to her instinctively and almost consider running off after her, but I have Shirogane right in front of me –

Turning back to face her, I almost don't realize it at first. I almost think I'm dreaming. But until this moment I never really got it – I never really registered the hopeless reality of all of this until now. But I had no other choice – there was no turning back, no turning away. I had to accept that I'd narrowly escaped with my own life and that was enough all on its own.

…But even then.

Looking at her like this –

I didn't even know her that well…

But her face…

The side of her face is smashed open, with her left eye and an entire portion of her jaw seemingly pulverized by her collision with the ground. Her left leg is completely gone. Her left arm is crushed, while her right arm seems to just be bloodied. Her head is twisted in a seemingly unnatural position.

I find myself staring for way too long. I had to keep moving – Shirogane's death was undeserved, but if I stayed here any longer…

…!

I see it – for a moment, her chest rises, so slowly that it was almost impossible to see at all.

She's… _breathing_?!

_What the hell?!_

I rush to her side without another solitary thought – she's survived a fall from that height? She's likely bleeding to death right now, but the fact that she's even alive at all right now –

"Shirogane-san! Can you hear me?!" I shout almost in a panic as the flames around us begin to spread. I glance around – we're almost completely surrounded. There's no way I could possibly haul her out of this all on my own without getting screwed over myself.

But I can't just leave her. Especially when her eye flutters open and she looks at me, seemingly pleading for me to save her.

"Look, I'll try to find help –"

"Amada-kun!" I hear a call from out in the distance.

I turn my head – I can barely see through all the smoke and fire, but Juno suddenly leaps onto the mountain of rubble in the distance and runs towards me.

"Juno?"

She sighs as she comes to a screeching halt next to us, ignoring me altogether, having noticed Shirogane's condition immediately. She looks her over several times, her expression becoming grimmer by the second. She looks around as if hoping to find something of use before sighing in frustration. She seems to reach out to her, but reconsiders before removing the upper half of her tabi and tying it around Shirogane's open leg socket.

"She's bleeding far from profusely… She must be so strong, if she can hold on for this long."

"…Fuuka?" I ask again.

"…It's nice to see you again, Amada-kun." She tries to smile, but finds herself struggling to.

"Wait, but what –"

"I'd rather not get into it. At least not right now. We've got more important things to deal with, right?"

"…Right. So what can we…"

"I'm not sure… Her injuries are… well, normal for this sort of thing, but she's clearly resisting the pain on inhuman levels. We might be able to shuttle her out of here if we wait for someone to tend to these flames."

"What about infection?"

"I…I don't think we'll need to worry." She seems incredibly confident in that assessment – I could only hope she was right in making it.

But suddenly Shirogane gags. She's trying to speak.

"I wouldn't –"

"I… Remember everything… I don't… deserve to be saved."

"You can't expect us to-" But Fuuka is cut off as Shirogane attempts to continue.

"P…Please… I don't care… what happens to…me…but…" Her voice is completely different – she's been damaged physically in every way imaginable, and her voice is now almost completely lost. "There's a…There's a…" Her voice cracks before she can finish her sentence.

Fuuka lowers her head to Shirogane's mouth. Shirogane manages to whisper what she was trying to say into her ear.

The look on Fuuka's face was already fairly horrific. But the moment Shirogane falls silent her eyes become so filled with terror that I couldn't even imagine what she'd just heard.

"…Amada-kun, we need to move her. Right now… We can't waste any time!" She shouts at me after a few seconds of total shock. As we try to lift her off the ground without another moment devoted to thinking things through, her entire attitude changes. She's actively afraid – she'd been so confident that things had a chance to work out, but now she was clearly unsure.

A few moments later we manage to get Shirogane to sit up against a destroyed pillar – but as we do so Fuuka suddenly cries in pain, holding her head steady with both of her hands.

"W-What the hell's wrong with y-"

"The Shadows…" She whispers. "They're… I've never felt them get so agitated before – it's like they're all crying out… In pain, in anger, crying for help – something's wrong. Something's horribly wrong…"

"Whoa, get a hold of yourself, alright? We can't have you freaking out –" I try to calm her down, but given how I have literally no skill in that area and considering how I'm still in a panicked daze myself, I don't succeed in the slightest.

Eventually Shirogane starts actively expressing signs of pain. Her intact eye was mostly clear a moment ago, but now her half-expression was glazed over. She was likely going into shock, if not straight into cardiac arrest.

I look off into the distance, trying to spot a path through the smoke and flames. But the chances of us finding a path out of the rubble of a collapsed tower were next to none. Were we _all _finished? If these agitated Shadows attacked us, we were in no condition to fight back. We'd have our backs against the wall –

But we couldn't give up now. We'd come too far…

Just as I begin to lose hope, another person joins us – this time a young woman, no older than I am, dressed in a black cape, wearing a black hat and mostly black clothing underneath said cape. Her hair was brown, but that was about all I could tell from the quick glance I'd gotten at her before I noticed her unnaturally bright red eyes.

"Who…" Fuuka questions before suddenly gasping in pain again. I almost take a hostile stance – but one look at her eyes told me everything I needed to know. She wasn't threatening us in any way.

"For now, simply call me Raidou. As I'm sure you're aware I don't have much time here – let me help her." The woman speaks curtly before moving to Shirogane's side as neither one of us moves to object to her. Looking her over quickly, Raidou turns to me. "Amada. Try to heal her."

"I…I can't exactly use that kind of magic anymore." I point out, somewhat more curious to know how she was aware of what I used to be able to do with my Persona.

She sighs. "I guess it can't be helped then." She pulls out a knife and runs it along the palm of her hand before stabbing the ground with it – and a small spark forms. A spark that expands to take the shape of a small, winged creature.

"Pixie – Dia." The creature floats in the air just above Shirogane and begins to cast healing magic. None of it seems to do any good, however, as Shirogane doesn't visually improve whatsoever. "Very well, dismissed." With Raidou's statement the creature vanishes into thin air.

I look at her somewhat dumbfounded before turning back to Shirogane, observing the lack of progress as Raidou attempts to check Shirogane's largest wounds.

"Not a Persona, in case you were wondering." She suddenly speaks, still entirely focused on her current task.

"I really wasn't." I manage to respond. "Not exactly the first thing on my mind right now, you know?"

"Understandable." She falls silent again while Fuuka remains off to the side, still appearing as if she's about to throw up.

"Are you alright?" I try to express my concern in the least vulgar way possible.

"This feeling… There's something coming."

"A Shadow?" Raidou questions before I can.

"No… Maybe? I can't tell – it's more human… It's like there's a Persona and a Shadow right on top of each other…"

"Nobunaga?" I ask.

"Nobunaga is a composite angel – he does not possess a Persona of his own." Raidou responds seemingly automatically. For someone I've never seen before, she's certainly very well-informed.

"Then what?" I ask, defeated.

"It's somewhat familiar, actually… It's just so intense, and with the other Shadows around I can't focus on it at all."

Suddenly, sirens begin to ring in the distance. Emergency personnel had at least been dispatched to deal with the situation – but considering how close by the station was, they'd likely been trying to get out their front door the entire time.

"Oh, thank god…" I sigh somewhat with relief, although I'm already well aware of how this development didn't necessarily mean anything good.

Shirogane suddenly gags heavily as Raidou suddenly stands up and Fuuka collapses to the ground.

"What the hell's -"

And in that instant the earth beneath our feet shakes violently. Are you shitting me? A goddamn _earthquake_? After all of _this_?

But it only takes me a few seconds to realize that this earthquake is far from natural.

The smoke above us suddenly clears as the wind suddenly picks up – the smoke swirls around in a massive circle and the clear night sky becomes visible above us. We're surrounded by the smoke, now swirling in that massive circular shape.

Right above us is the glow of the moon – but it wasn't its typical glow. It was a tinted glow – the moon was tinted a shade of yellow and the sky around it seems somewhat distorted.

It was all too familiar. The look in Fuuka's eyes conveyed the very same feeling.

And all around us suddenly echoed a loud, booming voice – a voice I'd most certainly heard somewhere before.

_Indeed, perhaps the Fall could have been prevented…_

_Had you soulless creatures held onto your false hopes and unrealistic ideals. _

_Perhaps then…_

_But now it is far too late._

_For the hope for the future at last is dead –_

_And the knell of eternal damnation stands before you. _

And from the skies above slowly descended a humanoid figure, surrounded by a massive black aura, thick but somewhat transparent at the same time.

The aura – it was shaped in a very peculiar way. At the head was what seemed to be two massive ears, long like a fox's, but thinner and crooked. By the arms took shape two massive appendages with clawed paws for hands, much like a bear's paws. And by the legs was what seemed to be a long and extremely thin tail –

The mere sight of this descending figure – there was something all too familiar about it.

And it lands only a few feet away from me, smashing the gravel beneath it with its landing. Raidou draws what seems to be a katana from her side and readies herself to strike.

And the humanoid figure –

Was I seeing things?

I had to be seeing things.

Maybe it was some kind of trick.

But it wasn't.

He stood there, his hands in his pockets, his face somewhat downcast, his shirt un-tucked and his Gekkoukan High School jacket unbuttoned, entirely unaltered down to the last detail. With that demonic aura at his back, he stood there, his eyes gazing over that which stood before him.

He hadn't aged a day.

Well, of course he hadn't. He was supposed to be dead.

But here he was.

Fuuka wasn't sure what to make of what had just happened – so she took to standing there, entirely unmoving, attempting to speak his name but stammering every time she tried.

"A-A-Ari…Arisato-kun…?!"

It was _him_ – it was _him_… But _why_?

He pulls his hands out of his pockets and shifts his arms in an arcing motion, the aura behind him moving in tandem. His arms were now somewhat stretched out towards us – it was a mimicry of a particular portrayal of the Messiah of the Christian faith, almost down to the last detail. It was only then did I notice that his feet weren't firmly on the ground – he was floating in the air, even if only a few inches above the ground.

"Didn't you hear me?" He speaks, his voice completely unchanged, yet his tone so dark and cold it was almost as if he were a different person altogether. "The knell of eternal damnation stands before you… I was talking about _me_."

Even though I have no spear I almost think it wise to take a battle stance. Something was clearly up here, but all I could do was look him over carefully.

"But now that I think about it, you guys weren't all that bright to begin with…" He laughs with his trademark laugh – that laugh that wasn't too loud but extremely dignified, just as he always laughed. "I mean, really, after everything that happened and everything you all went through, you guys _still _couldn't trust each other? I'm a bit mortified…" He sighs, brushing his hair out of his eyes – yet another typical motion of his. "After all, I did _die_ for all of you, didn't I?"

He was talking about that business in the Abyss – he knew about all of that. About that time when we were all at our most vulnerable, right after he'd left us. We'd all come to a resolution after that had passed us – but in the end we just made up an excuse that wouldn't tide us over forever. After all, the more the world around us deteriorated, and the more we wanted to fade away with it, the more we'd be tormented by his sacrifice. The more we wanted to abandon our obligation altogether.

In other words, the more we grew up, the more we wanted to let go. And the more we felt cornered. And when our world fell around us, all we had left to cling to was that promise that we'd tried to put out of our minds as much as possible.

"I'll speak for everyone and say…" Fuuka begins suddenly. "…That you're right. That what we did out of ignorance went against everything you gave up your life for. But things are different."

"Things _were _different, you might say… But humans can never truly overcome hardship, I suppose. But now, even if you're still trying to fight it, you've come to finally accept the inevitability of all this struggle… But then again, I wonder…" His eyes pass over Raidou. "…I wonder why _you _still have that fire in your eyes. That fire that says otherwise."

"…There's no value in believing in lost causes or in impossibly high hopes. There's only value in believing in what humans are capable of and in the strength that they have to act. And it would seem that you, despite being human yourself, wish to deny that humans are capable of anything at all."

"Humans are capable of nothing more than creating and destroying – and I assure you, they are far more skilled at the latter. So vastly, in fact, that we've finally reached the point where humans can only destroy." He looks skyward. "_That's_ why I'm here. Because the destruction has to stop. Permanently."

"That's not… That's not true." Fuuka speaks defiantly, even though her voice is wavering. "I know you don't believe that…"

"Do you really think you know me well enough to say something like that?" He looks at her with a disbelieving look. And in Fuuka's eyes were traces of confusion, betrayal, and perhaps emotional pain. She'd never expected him to say anything like that – after all, it wasn't as if her strong and as of now undying feelings for him were unknown to him.

He was cold. He was bitter. But it was him – he was the same. He was just… He was just cruel. Unusual. Something was very wrong here.

"This has gone on long enough." Raidou speaks. "If your intent is to end this world, I will stop you. Alone if necessary."

He grunts with amusement. "It's funny, how after all of this, there happen to be _exactly four of you _left… Probably doesn't mean much, though."

"…I know you've lost your faith in us." Fuuka tries to justify his change in personality as best as she can. "I know you probably think what you're saying is all true… But we pulled through once." Juno suddenly appears behind her. "…I'm going to show you can we can do it again."

He laughs again, eventually settling down and staring us down, his eyes half closed and rather smug grin plastered on his face.

"Ah, that's right… You guys _did _pull through once. I guess you have Aigis to thank for that." From the darkness of the aura, a long black katana appears before him. He grabs the katana and points it in Fuuka's general direction. "…Ah, but she's dead now, isn't she?" With that, a massive wave of concentrated black darkness flies from the tip of the sword and hurtles straight towards Fuuka –

Raidou steps in front and seems to cut the entire wave in half with her sword – but in the next moment Minato was upon her, his katana locking with hers. She struggles to overpower him, while he holds his blade with one hand, his other hand in one of his pockets. His dark expression seems a little plastered on his face at this point.

Suddenly, I see the aura move – in the shadow of Minato's own blade, the clawed beast hand swings towards Raidou.

"On your right!" I shout. Raidou takes notice right away and backs off, narrowly avoiding the swinging arm and managing to take another solid swing at him – but he blocks her counter effortlessly. I could tell that this fight wasn't going to go anywhere.

"Come on now, Ken. It's not fair if she has help…" He then looks at Raidou again before his eyes suddenly flash with confusion. "Wait… Wait one second here." His grin seems more like a surprised smile now.

Raidou makes several more swings, each carrying an inhuman swiftness to them, but each just as effortlessly blocked by her opponent.

"It _is _you! Wow, what the fuck happened to _you_?!" He laughs as they lock blades again. "How the hell did _you _end up like _this_?! Raidou Kuzunoha? Humanity's last line of defense? Professional Devil Summoner?" He then makes a swing of his own, knocking Raidou off balance instantly. With his otherwise free hand he moves forward and strikes her sword hand, knocking the katana out of her grasp. She tries to reach for it, but his katana is at her neck in a matter of instants. She grunts, almost moving but realizing her position in that same moment.

"You haven't figure it out yet? You're just a country-bred _whore_. And that's what you'll always be."

"Funny. The way I understand things you're a _city_-bred whore." Raidou throws back the same insult.

"You see, insults don't crawl under my skin anymore… They just bounce off the surface. Just like anything you could ever hit me with." He then lowers his katana. "But even now you still have that fire in your eyes. That fire that denies everything that I am. It makes me sick… But I won't kill you outright. I want to see that fire fade away as I lay waste to this world, one person at a time…"

With that he begins to float once again, this time higher into the air, his eyes glowing red. The aura around him seems to glow the same pair of glowing red eyes –

And in that moment I remember.

"…Erebus!"

"Bravo! Bravo! One of you has a functioning memory sector! It's a blithering _miracle!_" He laughs as the aura grows somewhat larger. "That was my name for a time. But now it's more accurate to say that I am _one with _Erebus."

"So then –" Fuuka's voice sounds hopeful for all of an instant.

"Despite the nature of this revival, my power is weak… But even then I will reap this world, and slowly my power will return! And then I will deliver unto you glorious Armageddon!" He stretches his arms as wide as he can. "I call to you, my Precious Fool! Come, Orpheus, Master of Strings!"

From that dark aura emerges another figure – this one taking the shape of his original Persona, Orpheus. It was the spitting image of the real thing – it very likely _was _the original thing.

"Rend and slaughter! Tear them apart, limb from limb! Bring glory to my name, and reap the sins of this wretched world!"

Orpheus descends – so _this _was how he intended to kill us all. Not by his own hand, but through Orpheus, who would doubtlessly kill us slowly.

Like hell was I going to die slowly.

"I don't know about you guys, but –" As I'm about to say something, a vehicle suddenly breaks through the swirling smoke and comes to a screeching halt right in front of us. The driver's door swings open – it's Officer Kurosawa.

We take his sudden appearance as a chance to get out of here intact. We scramble to Shirogane, hoisting her into the air and placing her in the back seat. Raidou sits on the roof while Fuuka tends to Shirogane in the back. I take a seat next to Kurosawa as we speed off into the distance.

"I hope I don't have to tell you that he's chasing us." Raidou calls out from above.

I stick my head out the window – sure enough, Orpheus is hurtling towards us as Minato' delirious laughter fades into the sound of the roaring wind. "I hope I don't have to tell you that you're the only one who can do us any good right now."

"I figured as much." She responds.

I remember that Kurosawa is seated next to me. "This changes nothing." I speak flatly. Fuuka gives me a concerned look through the rear-view mirror.

"I'm well aware of that." He responds. "At this point all I can do is get your friend to a hospital. You'll all have to work out the details from there." In other words, he was telling us to threaten the doctors if they wouldn't treat Shirogane.

"Why do this, though?"

"I'm an officer of the law… If someone's in critical condition, I'm obligated to help them."

I recall how Kurosawa was willing to take his duty to the grave with him if it was necessary. At this point he cared little enough that we'd never have been rescued in the first place if not for Shirogane's condition.

I hear metal clashing against metal above. It seems that Raidou's doing her job well enough.

"…We don't have much time. She's going to –" Fuuka is cut off by Shirogane's coughing. She was beginning to spit blood – it seems that we moved her too quickly.

"You both should realize that with how much blood she's lost…" Kurosawa begins.

"Evidently it's not her we're supposed to be worried about."

Kurosawa falls silent for a moment before suddenly something clicks. "…I see. Then we must hurry."

Eventually the clanging noises from up above stop. I peek out the window again.

"Any luck?"

"He backed off. Likely was called off by his master." Raidou responds. "We're fine for right now, at least."

Fuuka grips her head again. "The Shadows… They're still crying out. They stopped before, though, when we were in that circle… Do you think it had to do with _him_?"

I sigh. "You know, I really have no idea." I leave it at that – I was still having trouble putting everything together in my mind. Everything seems to have just happened all at once, and right now may be the only time I have to reflect for a long while.

But just as I make that call we come to a screeching halt.

"Get her out of the car. You're on your own now." Kurosawa speaks coldly.

I nod my head and help Fuuka pull Shirogane out of the car while Raidou drops down from above to help. The area around the hospital seems generally unaffected by the collapse of the tower aside from the frantic screaming and the smoke that had gotten this far – we'd been driving for a whole ten minutes.

We shuttle Shirogane into the hospital as we are met with hospital staff members attempting to send us away. Fuuka begins pleading, but at this point Raidou and I figure out that we need to do things by force.

We manage to find a stretcher and drop Shirogane on top of it – from there, all we had to do was find an emergency room and some doctors to do whatever needed to be done.

With some work I manage to locate a surgeon on the third floor. I manage to convince him to perform surgery on a 'conniving terrorist' as he so kindly put it through sticking Shirogane's pistol in the crook of his neck while Raidou manages to round up a few others.

We bring them to the emergency room Fuuka had found – and only then, after bearing witness to Shirogane's state of undress and the medical equipment Fuuka had gathered around her did I realize just what was going on here. Why Shirogane had to be operated on so quickly and why everything had suddenly seemed that much more dire.

Shirogane was pregnant. Apparently _very _pregnant. In all likelihood pregnant with Shinjiro's child.

"H-How long could she have been…" I trail off.

"Long enough. I'm amazed she could even hide it at this stage." The doctor closest to me spoke up. "If we start now, we can pull the child out and it'll be born almost completely naturally."

"I hope you – all of you – realize that if you don't perform adequately or attempt to further injure this woman or her child in any way that none of you are leaving this room alive." Raidou felt the need to threaten them further.

"Yes, I'm well aware of that." The doctors sighs. "A newborn has no influence over what world it's born into. It's not as if we're going to hold it in contempt for these circumstances."

I shrug my shoulders. "Sounds good enough to me."

With that, with Fuuka assisting them, the doctors began the procedure. Shirogane's stomach would have to be cut open and the child would have to be tended to with the limited supplies we'd managed to gather.

What made all of this worse was how Shirogane was conscious through the whole thing. They couldn't knock her out with anesthetic because aside from how it was possible that she wouldn't wake up there was none we were able to allocate – it would seem as though the hospital had been abandoned and most of the drugs stolen by staff members, the rest being scattered to the wind. It was hell on earth outside, but inside it wasn't all that much better.

It was the bloodiest scene I've ever witnessed – that includes the bloodstained interiors of Tartarus, by the way. So much work needed to be done with so few materials that it was a wonder that the procedure was even doable.

Eventually I snap back to reality as Fuuka tells me to gather towels and hot water. I eventually manage to do so while the doctors seem to move more frantically.

Eventually I hear it – the loud cry of a newborn child. It's an entirely different experience from what I'd imagined it would be like – the circumstances made the miracle of birth seem more like a tragedy than anything else. After all, the child's mother was slipping in and out of consciousness, at death's door, and the father never lived long enough to see them born.

"A boy." The doctor announces.

A few minutes later I finally catch a glimpse of it – the newborn was wrapped in the towels I'd given Fuuka and had seemed to have finally quieted down. The cheery atmosphere that every portrayal of a birth is associated with is nowhere to be found. Everyone is dead silent.

The doctor brings the child over to Shirogane, whose eye seems to have cleared up. The doctors stitched up her leg socket, the gap in her face, and the opening they'd made during the operation, so she was at least somewhat stable now. But it was likely only a matter of minutes before…

She gazes upon her child – she seems unsure of what she should feel. It made sense – she had such a huge gap in her memory to begin with.

But as she gazes at the child – she smiles.

She smiles with a warm, genuine smile. Perhaps the first time I've ever seen her smile before. It was as if she'd suddenly remembered how to smile at that very moment. It was inexplicible. But then again, I suppose that the bond between mother and child is already inexplicible as it is strong.

"My son…?"

"That's right…" Fuuka speaks softly. "…Would you like to name him?"

Shirogane hesitates to respond. But after a few moments, she speaks. "…There's so many names I can think of…"

"…" Raidou seems to want to say something but keeps her mouth shut.

Shirogane shuts her eye for a moment. "…The last power…The truth that makes me strong…" After a few more seconds of silence, she finally speaks up again. "Maybe I should name him… Yu?"

Raidou lowers her hat slightly.

"…No." Shirogane speaks again. "…Yamato. I'll name him Yamato." I look between her and Raidou who seems to be actively trying to hide her face. She eventually turn away as the newborn Yamato begins to stir.

"That's a nice name." Fuuka says with a smile, gently patting the child's back.

Shirogane gazes at her son again. "…Yamato…You're going to be the last thing I leave behind… I know you'll be strong… It doesn't matter now… What happened before. What I left behind then… Because there's you now. And that's…"

But she never finishes her sentence. She seems to freeze up entirely for all of a second before drawing one final breath and, with a wavering of her eye her gaze darkens as she falls into eternal sleep.

In the aftermath of Shirogane's passing, we were left with the most prominent matter at hand – what to do with Yamato, who couldn't possibly grow up with any semblance of a normal life given how things seemed to have fallen apart.

Fuuka seems to feel as though we could somehow manage raising a child – I more or less didn't care much about it either way. Either we raise him or we leave him to die – there wasn't much choice in the matter.

We find ourselves sitting on the edge of the road a few blocks from the hospital, with Yamato wrapped in heavier cloth in Fuuka's arms and Raidou standing off in the distance keeping watch. At this point there weren't any Shadows out and about and the smoke had cleared out – it was a cold night, but it wasn't particularly threatening otherwise. Yamato was going to catch a cold unless we relocated soon, but we didn't have anywhere we could've gone in particular.

Before too long it begins to snow. For the first time I'm brought back to earth for a moment, despite everything that's happened – even though it always hangs in the balance, the world just seems to keep on moving, disregarding everything around it. Maybe people _were _the source of the problem. Maybe we _didn't _deserve to go on living. But that doesn't mean that all of this will ever amount to anything in the end.

Fuuka and I more or less had the same mindset at this point – we'd lost so much to get to this point. We'd sacrificed so much and had seen so many of our friends die. We made it further than any of the others and we had nearly died to do it.

And we saw him again. We were finally reunited with him. I was finally reunited with the closest person to a brother I had. Fuuka was reunited with someone she loved dearly. He came down from the sky like and angel. And he vowed to kill us all.

Fuuka eventually speaks. "…At one point, I figured it out."

"…Figured out what?" I asked her.

"I was always Fuuka. But because of how much I'd changed since the point in my life where I'd defined myself, it was like I was someone else… I tried to be who I was. But I knew I couldn't survive if I did. So I drove myself over the edge and became Juno."

"…"

"I created a Shadow. A Shadow that reflected who I truly was – a Shadow that reflected who I felt I should have been. A Shadow that represented all of my suppressed feelings… I feel so stupid now that it's all over. There was never any point to being anyone other than myself to begin with."

"…You know something?"

"What?" Her face is still downcast.

"I have absolutely _no _idea what you're talking about."

She smiles, laughing somewhat. "I'm not sure I do either, really."

"…But anyhow…About Yamato."

"Yeah, I'm… I'm not sure what we should do. We can't just stay here, after all."

Raidou suddenly approaches us. "We need to get moving. This area's becoming crowded."

We had to make our decision now. We couldn't exactly move efficiently with a child with us, and without a doubt we'd be some of the first people the authorities would be searching for. Considering how Junpei had set us up, our entire plan was likely leaked beforehand, as were all of us.

Except for Raidou, of course, who'd just appeared out of nowhere like some kind of a last-minute savior. There was never much of an indication as to who she really was or where she'd come from. But that had its advantages… Certainly, it did.

"Then we have to decide… What are we going to do with him?" Fuuka's question is met with silence from both of us. Until –

"…I'll take him." Raidou speaks up finally, stepping forward.

"…Are you sure?" Fuuka looks at her somewhat incredulously.

"…Even though it is against my better judgment, I owe Shirogane quite a bit, so…" She seems to hesitate to respond. "I can ensure this child will be able to survive."

"You do realize that a child needs much more than a guarantee of survival." Fuuka points out something fairly obvious.

That's right – an infant needed a certain degree of care. Care that couldn't be administered haphazardly or overlooked. More importantly, there was the matter of how the child would end up growing up. Having this child grow up in normal society, given the nature of his birth and given how he had no birth parents and no other relatives of any kind, was entirely impossible.

But getting the newborn Yamato out of the city was already just as impossible. Raidou was offering a way for him to live on.

"I'm well aware… I assure you, I'm well aware."

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Fuuka pauses before continuing. "I know you're not particularly… Normal for your age, but you _are _about as old as Ken is."

"There's nothing to fear… More importantly, I don't believe we have any other possible choice here." Raidou points out something important.

"…I guess we're in no position to come up with something better." I speak with resignation. "If you can come up with the means to raise him, properly at that, I guess we can't stop you. Nor do we have the right to."

She nods her head. "Thank you, Amada." Fuuka somewhat hesitantly hands Yamato to Raidou, who almost immediately after securing the infant in her arms leaps onto a nearby trash can and up onto the roof of a building. She looks down on us one last time. "When next we meet, perhaps the circumstances will be more lighthearted." With that, she vanishes over the edge of the building and runs off into the night.

And with that, Fuuka and I are left alone on the side of the road.

From this point onward, there's no doubt in my mind –

The future will be dark and grim. There will be times when we won't be able to find our way and times where we'd be tempted to give up.

Even now - where do we go from here?

But we can pull through. We're human. We can't escape what we are, but we can pull through. Because we're human, we establish bonds. And those bonds are what will truly determine our fate in the end.

Who we are throughout our lives – who Yamato will grow up to be – in the end we will all grow up. In the end we will all change. Humans that are incapable of change are simply not human. The mere notion of otherwise is purely moronic – that's why, no matter how desperate things become, we have to stop him. We have to make him see. We have to make him understand.

It would take years. Many years, more years than we could imagine.

It had taken seconds for the world to be thrown into chaos. It would take years to rebuild it.

It would take years – but we would restore his faith in humanity. Or, like everyone before us, we would die trying.

* * *

_The River Styx  
__King Leo_

I find myself somewhere else entirely. All I know is that I'm no longer falling from the top of the tower and I'm most certainly nowhere on the face of the earth. I suppose that realistically expecting to survive such a fall was a bit too optimistic, but then again I'd been even more optimistic about things in the past. Of course I'd gone ahead and screwed all of that a long time ago, but I guess hope was something that not even someone as pretentious as myself could work around.

I stand before a river – a river that seems to stretch off into the distance. A river that seems to have no end, at least not as far as I could tell. Where I was standing, the grass beneath me was withered and dying – but across the river was a countryside field that seemed vibrant with life. The sky above me was completely white – it was as faceless as could be. Clearly this wasn't part of my world.

But I didn't really pay attention to any of that. It was rather what that open patch of countryside field was a spitting image of that caught my attention.

As shamed as I was to admit it, it was a place that held value to me. It was the top of a hill – a certain hill that I frequented a very long time ago.

It was there, atop that hill, where I declared myself _his _equal. If only there was meaning in such a thing – I was never his equal, nor would I ever be.

No, I was something entirely different from him. I was a very different man. You couldn't compare us no matter how hard you tried. That was, in all reality, my true goal – I wanted to become better. Or at least different. Something revolutionary. Something to change the way everyone saw the world around them. I wanted to touch people's hearts, even if by force.

With Labrys, it was possible.

But _she_ ruined everything…

She killed her, right before my eyes – and she didn't care. She didn't understand, even though we went through the same thing. I hated her. So much. But she was dead now.

But now that I think about it, where was I?

Soon I don't care enough – because soon I'm no longer the only person standing here at the edge of the river.

_He's _standing near me, looking out at the same hillside across the river.

"I think it's time you cross the river." He speaks. He is unchanged in virtually every single way imaginable. For an instant I feel as though I'm much younger. But the reality of it is clearly present in his eyes. He knows for certainty that such is not the case. Yet here he is, unchanged.

"…Never." I've never really done what he's told me to do, not even before everything went to shit. No reason to start now. I mean, really, what's he going to do. Kill me? I'm afraid someone already beat him to that one.

With that everything around us seems to change – and in a matter of moments we are standing in the middle of an eastern forest, the trees toppled and burned away and remnants of what I believed to be Inaba's Shopping District scattered everywhere.

Off in the distance was a massive circular structure, floating in the air. It was seemingly layered, with multiple entryways that all led to the same place. A narrow walkway led into it – a path desecrated with fallen trees and scattered debris. There was no doubt about it. This was –

"So even _now _the Hollow Forest calls to you. Seems like a waste of an eternity, if you ask me." He speaks nonchalantly.

I turn to face him again – but he's gone. He's vanished completely.

I turn to face the massive floating sphere before me. If he was going to be an ass about things, he'd probably be hiding in the boss's lair. He was moronic enough to take value in things like that. I walk towards it, at first at almost a running pace before I see him standing near the end of the path. Before I know it I'm in the inner sanctum of the sphere, the sealed coffin that I was all too familiar with only a few feet ahead of me.

He is now wearing a white robe hemmed with red designs. His robe lacks a hood, but in its place is what seemed to be Izanagi's hachimaki wrapped around his head. Around his neck hung a velvet key, and on both of his arms seemed to be large metal bands – they probably weighed significantly more than his relaxed demeanor expressed.

And his left eye – it was imbued with the same shades of red, blue and green as Ameno Sagiri's massive eye reflected. The strange glint in the Sagiri's eye was present as well – but disregarding his eye in its entirety, his whole appearance gave him a rather inhuman look.

"You've got a lot of nerve, being alive after all of this."

He grunts with amusement. "There are more states of being than simply being dead or alive. You might not believe it, but there are ones far worse than being dead. I'd like to think I've been dealt one of those."

"And what's with your crappy clothes? You seemed to have decent fashion sense from what I remember."

"…I'm sure you recognize this place."

"Yeah. And?"

"And I am now a part of this place, just as it was meant to be."

"Really now? And what about that over there?" I motion to the coffin. "Care to tell me what's in there?"

"Would you like to find out?"

"I take it there's a catch?"

"Hm… Nothing much. You'll only have to cope with the eternal damnation of your body and soul to the deepest, darkest pit of hell. Sort of a pushover after what you've just experienced, if you want my opinion." He grunts with amusement again.

"If anyone's doing the eternal damning, it's going to be me… Although I've already got a good idea of what's inside."

"Perhaps you should keep it to yourself."

"Hm…" In that instant, I turn on him, drawing the blade from within my coat pocket that luckily enough had traveled to this limbo-dimension with me. I stop the blade a hair from his neck, effectively immobilizing him. "… I wonder, how much of what you're saying is actually true? Maybe I _should _open the coffin. Maybe I _should _desecrate whatever's inside. You've already tried to tell me why I wouldn't want to open it… The only question is… why do _you _not want me to open it?"

"Essentially it boils down to whether or not you want to trust my word, even if I'm the keeper of this sacred place. For an eternity should the coffin remain sealed. Your intent is clouded by your inclination to do evil. But I suppose I can't stop you now." His expression grew dark – he didn't want me going in there. Was he at risk as well? Was he just trying to save himself? It couldn't have been that simple – this man wasn't self-centered enough to want to live forever. And he _certainly _wasn't interested in my well-being. There was something more to this.

"Keeper? So your purpose here… is to leisurely guard this coffin for all eternity?"

"I guess it's something like that."

"Do you even care?"

"About what?"

"About all the crap you put us through?"

"You're acting like everything's my fault. Blaming people certainly didn't get you anywhere before."

"How is everything _not _your fault? You were the one playing with fire. And you were the only one who didn't get burned."

"You seem to think that I intended for you to take the path you ended up taking."

"You've never been lost or confused in your entire life. You've never been left with absolutely nothing. But you condemned me to suffer both, forever at that…You disgust me."

"The only one who should disgust you is yourself." He speaks coldly, his neutral demeanor suddenly taking a bit of a nosedive.

"I'm far too narcissistic for that sort of thing."

"Too self centered? Too focused on being the king of the world?" He shakes his head. "Then explain why you died protecting someone else."

"…"

"You can only lie to yourself for so long. You came to a conclusion a long time ago – so why are you denying it now?"

"Things change."

"As all things do. But even then… Do you remember the promise we made? That February before it all happened – do you remember what we said we'd do?"

"…If…"

"If I lost my way, you'd knock some sense into me. And if _you _lost _your _way, I'd do the same to you." He sighs. "But it's too late for all of that. We're both already as lost as can be."

"…It's too late even if we were both still around."

"How so?"

"Everything's about to end anyway."

"What makes you say that?"

"The Shadows are going to devour everything. I don't know a damn thing about your prophecy, but it's clearly not going to save anyone."

He grins. "What makes you think that the prophecy went unfulfilled?"

"The last of the Persona users all ended up dead when the tower fell. There's –"

"Aside from that being simply untrue, you don't really seem to understand how the prophecy works… The four promised heroes will rise up to condemn evil. The four will liberate the world from darkness, but darkness will never rest for long. That is why there will always be four, as there will always be darkness in human hearts."

"…"

"Don't you see? The prophecy was fulfilled. You were defeated. The four heroes rose to defeat you. And they have. But gone are the days of peace – with the rebirth of Erebus and the fall of our earthly savior, war and strife will engulf the entire world forever. It will be many years, but the world will die – it will die a slow and painful death."

"And you seem indifferent."

"I believed that they would succeed. And they have. There isn't anything more to them than that."

"So you value our kind… But you don't?"

"We are the sort of people that are locked into our paths in life. Almost as if there's a third party mediating between human and Shadow, sealing our fate for us. I seek that person, and only through the plight of humanity will he ever emerge."

"Nobunaga?"

"No. Nobunaga is that man's Shadow. I seek a stronger power. A power that watches over the spectacle he calls our lives with glee."

"And what's the point?"

"…What's sealed inside this coffin is the truth. The truth that the world can never accept. The truth that denies the very foundation of humanity down to its very core. Beholding that which rests within will simply bring an end to your human existence."

"And by finding this person you're so obsessed with?"

"If humanity is to survive, it must be reformed. It must undergo rebirth – rebirth that will allow the truth within the coffin to coexist with it. While I cannot leave this place, I am most certainly capable of doing this… I wish to draw him out. And with the world having finally fallen into true chaos, he will doubtlessly be moved into action. And by doing so, I will create the possibility of this rebirth, even if it is as close to zero as it may be."

"So… Instead of giving up few for many, you're going to give up all for the _possibility _to 'save' many." I laugh. "It's not worth it. You can't salvage anything from a society that fell in a single evening. People are weak, and their weakness will always be exploited. A world without people – a world with only Shadows. That's the only world where your truth can coexist with man."

"A world of Shadows is no different from a world of mindless creatures."

"That's just it…! Isn't it perfect? Isn't it worth _dying _for?"

"Then did your mechanical friend die for that world? Or did she die for _you_?"

"…She died so I could create that new world."

"No, Yosuke. She died for you. She wanted to _protect _you. She cared for _you_. For _your _ideals. For _your _goals. All that she needed in a perfect world was _you_. It's the same thing as being in love. Something so horrendously human that not even you could escape it."

"You don't know anything…!"

"People cannot live alone. By trying to sever your ties from society, it will naturally become hard for people to live in it."

"Heh… That sounds a bit familiar, if you ask me." I brandish my blade. "How ironic… Naoto spoke those words once, but _she's _deader inside than _we _are!" I laugh, lunging forward.

He moves out of the way effortlessly, drawing the Blade of Totsuka from thin air and swiftly aiming to counter my swing without even fully facing me. I move out of the way, carefully judging my distance, stepping forward, and slashing again – my blade was short. It was weapon for slashing at close range. But his sword was much longer – therefore I was at the disadvantage.

He strikes again with greater intensity, but I manage to avoid, although somewhat narrowly. We exchange several more strikes like this, each one feeling as exhilarating as the last. It reminds me of our fistfight on that hill – although now I had the chance to become more than his equal.

"You weren't alone. Despite everything you were never alone. You're just a hypocrite blinded by jealousy and greed." He speaks as he backs away and thrusts Totsuka's tip towards me. I back away and strike at his hand, causing him to drop the blade – but the moment I take my opening Izanagi no Ookami appears in front of me, shielding me with its strangely designed sword. At that point he's already recovered his weapon and aims to take _his _opening, but at that same time Susano-o appears and slams his fist into the side of his head, sending him flying off to the side.

I now stand over him as he shakes his head a few times to regain his focus.

"You're just a pseudo-intelligent prick. That's all you've _ever_ been."

He sighs. "What does pseudo-intelligence even mean? Oh, perhaps I _do _know – it's a word immature children came up with so they could deny everything someone tells them without having to throw a temper tantrum. A word an idiot uses to save face… How you can use such artificial bilge as a last line of defense and somehow manage to knock me down is nothing short of a miracle." He stands. "I assure you, you will not have the chance to catch me off guard again."

With that we clash blades once more – he's somewhat more ferocious now. His movements are faster and more accurate this time – he successfully catches me open at least twice, but he doesn't act on either opening. He's taunting me. He's just toying with me. He's trying to piss me off – and it's working.

"You seem so sure – you seem so sure that you're some kind of paragon of justice. You seem so sure that this world needs to be saved. You seem so sure –"

"Only because you seem so uncertain. But you've always been uncertain. That's why you were always the second banana."

"You're a royal prick, you know that?"

"So I've been told… But I wonder. Why do you even care what happens to the world at this point? Wasn't your intent always to wipe it away? To create a world of ignorance…? No, you're nothing more than another Adachi. You're a coward. You're afraid of losing your life, but you don't want to live."

"You wanna try saying that it makes no sense? That I'm some sort of mental degenerate who can't think straight?"

"By no means… After all, _you _were the one who spoke those words that day. But you still have ties to that world."

I grin. "I _am_ only human. I never really passed the godhood test. Like you seem to have."

"And rebirth is out of the question?"

"Our world is unique in its own right. I may despise my humanity, but I am human. If your plan is to deny me and everything that I've ever been, I'm not going to let you do it. Shadows are simply another part of human nature – and with your rebirth, they will cease to exist, am I wrong?"

"It is certainly a possibility."

"Humans try to be more than they are. Humans try to exceed their limits but never truly understand what that entails. Humans are fools. I hate humans. I hate myself for the same reason. But humans will always be human. And that's how they should be. But your rebirth is so far from the perfection I sought in my society I could puke." I point my blade at him defiantly.

"Humans deny their nature? And in turn they are truly human?"

"Precisely. Humans should embrace their nature. Humans should become perfect – perfect humans, humans that aren't misguided or deterred by anything. Humans that understand just how pathetic and insignificant they truly are. That is what being a Messian truly entails."

"I wonder –which one of us is supposed to have compassion for mankind again?"

"I'll say it again – your goal is to deny everything that I am. So I'll deny everything _you _are until you have no reason to even _be_."

"Then come. Release your dark impulse." He raises his voice. "Show me what you believe makes you 'human.' Fight me!" He raises Totsuka to the sky, and through the roof of the tomb falls a bolt of lightning that electrifies his sword.

At the same moment I decide to get serious as well. Resting my blade against the ground, a charge of wind fills the tomb. The ground beneath my feet explodes with life – grass and vines sprout from the lifeless floor and encircle my blade, imbuing it with a delicate, yet overwhelming power. I raise it once more and stand ready to attack.

"Then let's pit them against each other – your reason and mine!"

With that I lung towards him, as he does towards me, and our endless battle begins.


	10. II: Knell of the Lesser Evil

_**Persona: Reverse Rebirth of the (True) Goddess**_

_**Part II of IV**_

"**_Knell of the Lesser Evil_**_**"**_

_Love is to forgive._

_Love is to forget._

_Love is to live for._

_Love is to die for._

_It is You who set my heart aflame._

_It is You who betrayed and broke me._

_It is You I will hate all my life._

_It is You I will love forever._

_~Raidou Kuzunoha XVII_


	11. Identity

_**2.1 Identity**_

_The Hollow Forest  
__Ken Amada_

It's quite honestly amazing how someone like Raidou can even exist.

Yes, that's what I've chosen as my first thought. But you'll see what I mean soon enough.

I'd seen her at the market in Shibuya and chose to follow her on a whim – there was no real reason for me to, especially considering how Fuuka had sent me there to get something for her anyway, but I couldn't help but follow her – it had been six weeks since she'd disappeared that night, the infant Yamato in tow, and I'd be lying if I'd said I hadn't been concerned.

People who make their own decisions are one thing. But someone born into a world like this – it never really occurred to me what kind of nightmare someone like Shirogane's son could go through, being born into a dysfunctional society like this one. But purely by chance, I'd seen Raidou by herself this morning – and, somewhat unintelligently, followed her into the black vortex she'd opened in the alleyway behind the store.

I'd found myself in a very strange place – at first I'd forgotten what I was doing or where I'd been, as if my memory had been sucked away from me all in an instant. I almost didn't recognize how empty the sky seemed to be – it was a completely plain white, with no feature whatsoever. The landscape around me, however, was dotted with large bamboo trees and a massive river that seemed to run on forever through it. This place was still dangerous, though – there were Shadows everywhere. I shouldn't have been anywhere near as surprised as I was.

I tried to make sense of where I was, eventually catching Raidou through the corner of my eye – I decided there was no better course of action than to follow her, no matter where she was going.

And so here I am, running through the bamboo forest, watching Raidou cut through hordes of Shadows in single strikes while carrying several bags of groceries in one hand and her tried and true katana in the other without missing a single step. I consider helping her, but without a spear I wouldn't do much good.

Eventually we come to a break in the masses of Shadows and to the riverbed – Raidou vaults over the river without a second thought, balancing the groceries perfectly as she does so. There wasn't any doubt in my mind that I'd never make such an elegant jump, but I had to at least try or I'd get eaten by Shadows. I take a deep breath before stowing away my fears and making a run for it – as I expect, I don't make it any reasonable distance whatsoever – I miss the other end of the river by quite a sizable margin.

Of course at that moment Raidou manages to reach out and grab my hand, pulling me to the other side of the riverbed with relative ease.

"This isn't the sort of place that normal people should be wandering around." She seemingly scolds me.

"What kind of normal? Because I can tell you right now that I don' t fit anyone's definition of normal." I reply. She seems somewhat amused by that, but she doesn't react in a particularly normal way.

"You're here now, so I suppose it's better that we do this now rather than later."

"Do what, exactly?" Did she expect me to follow her here the whole time? For some reason I felt as though she'd allowed me to see her entirely on purpose so I'd follow her like this. Very quickly I begin to feel insecure.

"There's something you should see… I've been hesitant to bring Yamagishi to this place, which is why I called out to you alone."

"Called out to me? When was this?"

"You saw me at the supermarket."

"That's… Not the same thing as calling out to someone. You know… You're supposed to walk up and… _talk_ to someone." I scratch the back of my head.

"You're here either way, aren't you?" So she _did _know that I'd follow her here. How shrewd.

I follow her down the path – the forest itself was teeming with Shadows, but the ones in this area seemed to distance themselves from her. I would too if I were a Shadow – Raidou was definitely not someone you want to screw around with under any circumstances, even if she _didn't _want you dead. I'd never feel sorry for the Shadows, obviously, but there _had _to be better ways of going out than to go out fighting Raidou.

Eventually we come to a much quieter section of this strange bamboo forest – and then I see it. Off in the distance is a massive sphere, floating in the air. I more or less knew for certain that we'd be heading straight towards it – I couldn't help but be curious as to what it was, but I was hesitant to ask Raidou anything. She wasn't exactly all that approachable.

But luckily for me, she seems to read my mind. "Disregard what your eyes see. Our destination is removed even from this world."

"So we _aren't _going to that huge thing over there?"

Raidou doesn't respond –

A few feet further the forest suddenly vanishes all around us.

And in another instant we're in the sky, on a large staircase high in the sky, above the clouds. The atmosphere has changed drastically – the forest seemed so cold and desolate, but this place seemed so angelic and warm.

Ahead of us is a massive dome, built of the purest of ivory. It was the size of a three story building, at the base of which two massive doors built out of the most rustic of mahogany wood stood, roman-esque engravings covering them from top to bottom. Raidou walks up the stairs towards them while I follow, somewhat bewildered at how the doors swing open when she lightly taps on them.

The interior is much smaller than it had seemed – what seemed to be a large platform sat at the middle with the walls seemingly having no face to them but a strange dark haze that surrounded the room. And at the very center, sitting on the floor, was what appeared to be a man dressed in a white robe in some sort of meditating position.

The moment we get close enough to the man Raidou runs to his side almost instantly. I finally notice that he's visibly distressed – he seems extremely weak for some reason.

"I was gone too long." She says dejectedly, falling to her knees at the man's side.

"No, it's of no consequence." The man speaks – I most certainly know his voice from _somewhere, _but I just can't seem to figure it out.

I glance around the circular platform that made up this room – furnishings from a perfectly normal child bedroom were scattered about this seemingly unconventional space. Yamato was fast asleep in the crib off to the side and some sort of food was cooking on a stove top on the other end of the platform. The television set against the far side of the platform hummed with static. There was a bed designed for a larger person set somewhere off between the crib and an old mahogany dresser that made up what I'd decided was Raidou's 'room,' as it was. Everything from a crib to an assortment of stuffed animals for an infant to chew could be found in this astonishingly makeshift space. There was even something akin to a baby monitor next to the crib. Not that it had any viable purpose, unless Raidou could hear Yamato from another dimension or something.

"Is there anything more… Anything more that-"

"Relax, Raidou. This place is at no risk… The child will be safe."

"If you die, we lose everything. You know that."

He sighs, stifling a cough. "You don't have to fear… I'm the guardian of this domain. As long as I control it, this place is safe."

"You know better than anyone else that you aren't invincible. Before long things are bound to go south – you need to rest."

"I will survive…" He then lets out a cough and turns towards me. I get a better look at his eyes – they were weak and tired, but they gave off a very particular haze to them – but as he seems to focus on me, one of his eyes seems to start glowing with an assortment of colors. Wonderful, another superhuman I need to get acquainted with.

"Ah…Ken Amada." He smiles dimly. Oh, how wonderful, and he knows who I am already on top of it. "So… You've brought him here… why?"

"You have to understand – there's no way that things can persist the way they are… Yamato-kun can't possibly grow the proper way under these conditions, and if things remain as isolated as they are-"

"I see you've finally started to put your faith in your friends… It's a good start."

"…I owe Shirogane a debt. Her son can't possibly survive like this. If there was some other way…"

"But you must trust him enough… You brought him _here_, after all."

Raidou doesn't have a response to that. I finally take the silence as my opportunity to cut in. "Alright… I take it there's an important reason why I'm here?"

The man nods. "I will admit, that… Despite how my powers aren't as measly as you've probably come to suspect them to be, these are pressing times… I did not anticipate the birth of a child to be tied into all of this, but such are the way things have gone… Raidou seems to think that you're trustworthy."

I suddenly feel dizzy –

In an instant Raidou, the furniture, and everything else really, vanishes around me as I blink my eyes – just this man remains standing before me. But now he holds what seems to be a katana in his hands, poised in an aggressive pose.

I suddenly realize that I'm holding a spear.

"However…" He continues speaking. "Raidou is young – she is young and, despite her personality, is easily deceived. I will test you myself."

"Wait, what's this about a test, now?"

"We're both Persona users here. So we're going to pit our powers against each other."

"For some reason I don't think this is going to be a fair fight." I look over him again – nope, the samurai vibe doesn't seem to exert an 'I'm actually really weak' feeling at all. Oh well.

"The rules are simple. All you need to do is hit me once. With that, you'll have earned my trust."

He's clearly ready to strike me down, while I'm only supposed to hit him once. I doubt the casual demeanor of his words – his eyes betray all signs of calmness. He's ready to kill –

I see it then. His eyes dart back and forth for a few seconds, as though he's following something invisible to me with his eyes. It then occurs to me that he was injured, or in the process of being injured –

Was this not his real body? Was he simply projecting this version of himself to this place while he was off somewhere else, fighting? That would explain it – despite how calm his voice was, his expression was anything but.

I step forward to gauge this newfound weakness of his – and as I thought, he stiffens, his breathing indicative of an intense battle while ours has yet to even start.

I run towards him – and I swing my spear, not aiming to strike him, but to get a feel for his reaction time – he blocks my strike without any hesitation or delay, but he puts far too much force into it for a block with no follow up attack. I move away, this time moving in to land my blow and be done with it – this time he manages to back away and not only block the strike but close the distance between us in order to push me even further away –

And in that moment where his skin meets mine, I feel it –

An ice cold touch. Colder than Thanatos' hands.

I move forward again, this time calling to Kala Nemi to extend the reach of my strike, but in exchange he calls one of Yuki's Personas – Samael, a dragon-like entity that I've seen one time too many. Samael manages to stop Kala Nemi's advance, but is caught completely off guard when its opponent erupts and explodes from the inside, Thanatos using the force of the blast to move far past the Persona and straight towards its master.

He blocks Thanatos' strike with one of his own, but he's sent back a little too far for someone with a stable fighting stance. I move myself, impaling Samael with my spear before using it as a sort of stepping stone as I leap towards its master. I bring my spear upward, close enough to pierce straight through his skull while he has no room to maneuver.

I stop my spear a few centimeters from his face.

"This is enough." I say suddenly, his eyes giving away a more irritated sort of confusion than made sense for one who had barely even begun to fight. "We have no reason to fight. Persisting with this idiotic game of yours will just leave you even more exhausted."

"What are you saying…? Our fight's only begun."

"You don't think very highly of me, do you?" I shake my head and sigh. "It doesn't take a genius to notice that this isn't your real body. Or to notice that wherever your real body is, it isn't in particularly great condition."

His offish smile seems like a smile of resignation. "But it _does _take someone capable of coming this far, I suppose…" He drops his katana, the fight ending abruptly.

Once again the interior of that place forms around us, Raidou completely unfazed by our sudden disappearance and reappearance.

The man sits down.

"I should've been more straightforward about all of this. I'm sorry." He apologizes, his breath once again ragged. Raidou once again retreats to his side almost on the spot, giving his chest support as he coughs several more times. "Right now there's very little time to explain my circumstances, but for the time being I am protecting a sacred tomb essential to humanity's survival."

"From who?"

"Would you like to take a guess?"

"King Leo, or is it Nobunaga?"

"Fortunately for all of us, it's the former."

"Then where is _this_?"

"This is a projection – while the forest itself is the domain in which the sacred tomb lies, it also functions as a crossroad – the only entrance into the world of human hearts. This place is a projection of a human heart – but only one human heart."

"And whose heart might that be?"

"Long ago," Raidou suddenly speaks up, "there was a young girl, pulled away from the world she thought she knew and cast into the world of her own heart. This is what's left of that place, at least as far as we know."

"With my power I removed this place from the world of people's hearts, as the forest itself despite having once been part of it now stands as its own entity. This dimension is separated even further – the only link between this place and anywhere else lies with Raidou and myself. This is as safe a haven as there is." The man continues.

"How reassuring. But what's all this talk of the 'world of people's hearts'?"

"As I've said, there's not much time to explain the circumstances – there is only time for you to be told what you must know. And that is the circumstances of all of this."

"All of this?"

"Surely you must want to know…" Raidou speaks up again, but seems hesitant to continue. "…You saw Shirogane die. You saw her child be born. Surely you want to know the truth behind those things."

"Shinjiro found Shirogane in an alleyway and the two of them started fucking on the side while they were fighting the Shadows. Yamato is Shinjiro's kid, right? Shirogane died because of her injuries from when the tower collapsed, right? That's enough for me, really."

Although I'd said that only a second before, I find myself doubting my words, even if only in the back of my head.

Raidou seems conflicted, but eventually replies. "…I'll ask again. Surely you must want to know. You saw Shirogane die. You saw her child be born. Surely you want to know the truth behind those things, don't you?"

"…If you don't mind me asking," I eventually respond after a few seconds of awkward silence, "how out of the loop am I, exactly?"

"If you're going to join our cause, then you have to know everything." The man speaks again. "Right now, it would seem that you know about as much as I expected you to know – you're a generation behind us, so it's understandable… Of course, even _if _you had been a part of the fourth generation you still might not know any of the details anyway."

"…I take it this has something to do with that town? The one Shirogane was supposed to be from until we found out it didn't exist?"

"Precisely… I know that it must be difficult facing Erebus after all this time, especially considering how he wears the face of your friend. But if Erebus is to be defeated once and for all, we can't fail. The way things are now there's simply no way the world will outlast the chaos all of this has created. Soon the thousands that die will outnumber the millions that are born and our world will become a second hell."

"The Persona-like creature I made use of earlier was a demon." Raidou speaks. "Demons originate from the deities responsible for making them – they come from masses of Shadows that create their own individuality, defying the very laws of our world. If Erebus is allowed to succeed our world will become a world of demons – every Shadow that roams the surface will become a demon and there will simply be no way for humanity to survive their onslaught."

"Sounds heavy." I respond.

"So you must understand – unless you know the entire story, there's no way we can succeed. You first need to know _why _the Shadows invaded our world. Why King Leo came to power in the first place. And all of it has to do with Inaba." The man's gaze seems to shift. "If you perhaps still feel for your lost friend, I understand, but –"

"I already killed him once." I speak with some resolution in my voice. "It shouldn't be a problem to do it again."

In the days after that evening, I couldn't stop thinking about what he'd said. How he hated us because of what we did with ourselves after he gave his life away for our sakes. There was no way I could ever make amends for what happened – no way except to do what he did.

So I came to a decision. I would _never _do what he did. I would never give myself up for the sake of humanity. Humanity didn't deserve anything – especially not compassion.

Only he did.

To give up my life for _his _sake.

That's what I would do.

And the only way to do what would be to save him from the path he's taken or die trying.

I'm sure that Fuuka hasn't come to the same resolution. Considering everything that had happened to her I was content with leaving her out of this for the time being. She definitely didn't need this – the fact that she was still standing upright was more than enough to ask of her.

"So what exactly are you going to tell me about?" I take a seat on the floor across from the man. "Oh, but if you don't mind me asking – what's your name? I mean, I kinda have no clue what to address you as."

"Hm.." He smiles somewhat weakly. "What _is_ my name, I wonder? Has it been so long that I can't remember?" He faces Raidou. "Which was it? Narukami? Dojima? Seta? All of the above, maybe?"

"Forgive me, but I'd rather we not bring this up until Amada knows all of the details." She responds.

"Ah, good point…" He faces me again. "Now tell me, Amada –"

"Just call me Ken. You too, Raidou."

"But Yamagishi calls you Amada – you don't seem to object to her." Raidou points out something I don't usually think about.

"Yeah, well, Fuuka's a bit of a different case."

"Very well then, Ken." The man continues. "How much do you know about the myth of Izanagi and Izanami?"

"Uh… That's the creation story, right? You see, Greek mythology is pretty much my mythology – you know, Thanatos, Nemesis and all – I'm also not religious in the slightest for fairly obvious reasons, so…"

"You're right – that _is _the story of creation in Japan. It's one of the particularly interesting ones, since it spends less time talking about gates in the sky and more talking about birth and death rates. Long story short, Izanami's husband Izanagi travels to Yomotsu Hirasaka to save his dead wife, promises to do as she says, and then promptly breaks that promise. In response, Izanami vows to kill thousands every year while Izanagi vows to give birth to millions. Izanami is, by this logic, a sort of eternal representation of death in human society."

"That actually sounds a bit familiar. But how exactly is it related to all of this?"

"Every human is formed by Ego and Shadow. Both elements lead to our individuality. Our individuality leads to self examination. Self examination leads to the realization that we cannot understand ourselves, and that realization leads to our need to compare our 'selves' to other 'selves' found in the people around us. This is the foundation for human society… And the fear and malice that come with it when these 'selves' collide. Eventually, once society has been built up, it naturally begins to corrode, sometimes overnight and sometimes over the course of fifty or even a hundred years. When this corrosion happens, society is subject to mass destruction – death will occur, whether it is cultural, spiritual, psychological, or physical."

"Considering how I witnessed the whole 'mass destruction' thing firsthand, I have to agree." I say with a bit of a sigh. "So then does the whole Izanami aspect of death play into it?"

"Yes – although the death human society is exposed to now isn't classified under any of those four."

"Then what kind of death is it?"

"Ethereal death. Death were every individual person is broken down and killed in every which way imaginable to the point where the terms 'death' or 'being' no longer have any substantial meaning – not truly dead, but in no sense alive. The sort of death that turns man into Shadow and Shadows into demons. The kind of death that will eventually kill the planet itself long before its physical expiration date."

"Sounds like what Nyx and Erebus were trying to do."

"What you experienced was an attempt to subject the entire planet to psychological death. To essentially kill the meaning of life and end all life on the planet as a result. Erebus now seeks to enforce ethereal death, which is simply far worse by comparison. It is an eternity of pain where pain itself is unidentifiable. It is an eternity of nothing but Shadows, where death and life are reversed in nature and meaning."

"Earlier, you mentioned the thousands that die outnumbering the millions that are born. That our world will become a second hell."

"Precisely. Hell is nothingness and a mixture of pain and death is the only state of being. But at the same time Hell is simply a human design – it is because of the nature of our human society that hell came to exist… For quite some time, for several tens of thousands of years, in fact, the domain of human hearts has been degenerating. Hell itself _is _the world of human hearts."

"But isn't _this _place in the realm of human hearts?"

"But this place – you saw the exterior, did you not, this is clearly _heaven_, not hell. It's the one domain in the realm of human hearts that is free of that darkness."

"Well, that's certainly a new spin on the whole heaven and hell thing…" I sigh again.

"There's more to it than simply that, though."

"Well, yeah, of course there is. When is it_ ever _clear cut like that?"

"The world of human hearts, or Hell, or whatever name you've known it by, is more commonly referred to on a more international level as the World of Demons, The Abyss. The corrosion of humanity as a whole and the blackening of human hearts led to its creation. Long ago, the world of human hearts was a tranquil land, but even before the Common Era it became what it is today." He continues, disregarding my comment. "It's all thanks to Izanagi, who was the first to experience the uncertainty that now drives mankind, that The Abyss became what it now is. If Erebus is allowed to succeed in his mission, the mortal world will become a second Abyss and engulf the first one with it."

"Wait – the Abyss? Have I heard that name somewhere before?" I ask him, knowing all too well that I'm going to get an exact answer.

"There have been many entrances to the world of human hearts. The Desert of Doors was a gateway into The Abyss – the world of human hearts, or rather, the world of _your _heart, and the hearts of all of your friends that were unable to move on from the events of that past year. That is why you all experienced elements of your past memories while you traveled the depths of the Abyss – your own hearts called you to it. All of them are simply entrances to the Abyss' surface – the deeper in one goes, the less human they become until their Ego and Shadow separate entirely. Inaba was subject to this in particular."

It made sense, to some extent. Metis had even called that place some sort of an Abyss herself – it certainly made sense that we were traversing a world of our own creation, especially considering how completely primal most of us had become by the end of that whole mess.

"What about Tartarus?" I inquire.

"Tartarus was essentially a portion of the Abyss that made it through Yomotsu Hirasaka – it stood as a testament to a collective desire for death and deliverance from human failure, as I'm sure you're aware of – it was more or less a dimensional distortion in space in time that the Abyss managed to leak through. The Abyss is a domain of solitude and individuality, as opposed to the socially oriented structure of the mortal world. Tartarus was a collection of every individual desire for death in that city, each manifesting as its own floor in a massive tower – there are millions of towers just like it strewn all about the surface of the Abyss."

That would explain why Tartarus vanished when the Dark Hour was erased. And why it was so damn tall.

"What exactly makes the Abyss different from our world, aside from the whole Shadows aspect? We _were _a bit special, but we could go in and out of Tartarus and the Desert of Doors pretty much freely."

"By traversing into the Abyss unnaturally – in other words, entering the Abyss while still completely human – those with the power to face themselves are able to prevail against the forces of the Abyss… Surely, you must have noticed that your Personas were effectively unusable outside of Tartarus and outside of the Dark Hour period."

I most certainly had – Junpei never shut up about it. Maybe once a week at the least he'd complain about how he couldn't beat up people with his Persona outside of the Dark Hour.

"Yeah, that _was _kind of a bummer, I guess. So you're saying it's because we were Persona users that we could enter the Abyss freely?"

"Precisely. With your Persona you could enter the realm of human hearts – the Abyss itself is everything that mortals are not, and the two normally cannot co-exist. One must ultimately expunge the other, but with the power of Persona you could avoid all of that, even defy the laws of death itself… Surely, many of you fell in battle at one time or another."

"Yeah, and then our leader would throw a bead at us and we'd be fine… Wait, so because we had our power and we could deny the Abyss, which at the same time was trying to deny _us,_ we could come back to life, because dying in the Abyss had no real meaning for us?"

"That's about as much sense as it's going to make – although it would never be possible to bring yourself back on your own. Every person is an individual in the Abyss, removed from others entirely – that's why you must have been traveling in a group to avoid death in the Abyss."

That made sense as well – thinking of Junpei I remember Chidori, who seemed to be one of the biggest outliers to the whole idea. She could use her Persona outside of the Dark Hour _and _had survived_ during_ it, but if what this man said was true, then knowing her moment of death all her life was likely some form of ethereal death, which made her the opposite of us – a creature of the Abyss, roaming in the world of the living, voiding _our _laws of death to be revived despite her loss of memory.

It all also explains how the Shadows always seemed to come back – aside from the twelve that I suppose could die on our terms because humans theoretically created them and Ryoji, the combined form of them, was clearly human, it would seem that the Shadows in Tartarus and the Shadows in the Abyss itself couldn't die in our terms of death. They could now, only because the line between the two dimensions was clearly harder for both sides to see, and at the same time we could now die on their terms as well as use our Personas outside of an apparent dimension like the Dark Hour.

So all of us were now essentially like Minato and Ryoji. The Ego and Shadow aspects of ourselves were now as amplified as was possible. We were all combined humans and Shadows like Chidori. So now anything could happen – no Plumes of Dusk could ever change that.

Something suddenly hits me. His words from before –

"Wait, but if that's the case, are the Shadows coming straight out of the Abyss like before?"

"How kind of you to point that out. Essentially the end result of Erebus' actions will be an ethereal union between the world of humanity and Yomotsu Hirasaka, which is the only direct entrance into the heart of the Abyss. With Yomotsu Hirasaka bridging this world and the Abyss together, the evolved Shadows, or simply put the demons of The Abyss, will cross through and as a direct result the world will experience ethereal death and will for all intents and purposes end."

"But how did the merger even begin? You're saying that death and life are going to be reversed or something like it is in the Abyss, right? And if Izanami is supposed to be the ruler of Yomotsu Hirasaka –"

"I see you've already reached the conclusion on your own… For death and life to become reversed in such a way, then surely, the embodiment of death must have voided its own rules… The mortal world has entered a state of _Megami Tensei _– a state of Goddess Revival. In this state, the line between the mortal world and Yomotsu Hirasaka is blurred severely to the point where the Shadows can cross into the mortal world freely. In order for the gates of Yomotsu Hirasaka to fully open, the world must give rise to a state of _True _Goddess Revival, where Izanami will fully revive and Yomotsu Hirasaka will give rise to the demons of the Abyss, who will reduce the world to ashes. Erebus wishes to invoke the state of True Goddess Revival on his own terms and control it – I can only imagine that he wants to rule over the impending ethereal world of demons himself… Right now the key to the state of True Goddess Revival lies within the tomb you saw on your way here – right now, King Leo seems to be well on his way to a design similar to Erebus'."

"But why has Erebus not attacked yet?"

"It might be because he is unaware that the secret is here – but I doubt that's the case. Perhaps he's waiting for someone else to bridge the gap."

"But what good would that do him?"

"I can't say."

"Huh… I was wondering when you were going to run out of answers… But that being said, I've got to know-"

"What this has to do with Inaba? With the town that no longer exists?"

"…Well, yeah."

"You see…" He trails off, seemingly hesitant to continue. Raidou seems to shift a bit before Yamato suddenly wakes and she moves away from us to tend to him.

The man continues to remain silent, contemplating how to continue.

Eventually he speaks. "…I am like your friend – I have the power of more than one Persona, as you likely know by now. And I, as you did, traveled into the Abyss with my close friends, battling the byproduct of human nature that we subsequently strengthened during our journey. When the end came I knew that our lives were being controlled by inevitability – a fifty year cycle of sin and punishment, on loop for all eternity. And so I tried to deny that inevitability. I tried to leave the confines of my destiny. And I succeeded."

"And this resulted?" I pause briefly. "…What exactly did you do?"

"…Can you take a guess?"

"…"

"…The look on your face says all I needed to hear – that's right. I revived the goddess. I brought Izanami back to life – when it comes down to it, I'm the one responsible for the future this world now faces."

"…And why?"

He smiles somewhat sadly, his eyes darkening. His next words convey all that he needs to convey – for there was no better reason than the reason he gave.

"Because I loved her." He says, as his tale of the small countryside town that never will be again begins.

* * *

_Yasoinaba Station  
__April 11__th__, 2011  
__For Now, My Name Is Souji Seta. _

My arrival in Inaba, the least interesting place on Earth, had gone on without any sort of interference. The train hadn't been delayed, although I would've rather had it be prolonged for as long as possible. This is the part of the whole transition that was the most peaceful – I didn't have anyone to answer to yet, and at the same time I didn't have any sudden or new obligations to fulfill. It was nice, at least for as long as it was going to last.

I glance at the photo on my phone – I'd known I'd forget the actual photo before I left so I took a picture to ensure that I wouldn't be wandering around this out-of-the-way town like an idiot for a few hours – my new immediate family as it was seemed to be a single father and his daughter. They looked like a typical loving family in the picture, save for the obvious lack of a mother – Ryoutarou Dojima was the man's name, his daughter being Nanako Dojima. They were related to me on my mothers' side – fantastic, considering how all of my mother's relatives up to this point have been complete wastes of grey matter.

It was never my fault – my mother's relatives were always assholes to the core. Those that weren't just weren't friendly in the slightest. I was lucky in a sense that my parents always move around so I didn't have to waste my time with any of them past a certain point. Although my parents are another topic entirely. But soon enough I won't have to deal with them either – once I'm eighteen those two are going to split up anyway. Mom is too obsessed over her work to give a shit, while Dad is just kind of submissive to everything. It's pretty much evident that I'm the sole reason they're still together at all – mainly because neither one of them really wants anything to do with me these days anyway but don't have much of a choice in the matter until I'm of the 'right age'.

Ryoutarou was evidently a detective, so I had to assume by association with the word that he was a hard working man with a lot on his plate. Must be tough, raising a daughter by himself. And now he's got me to deal with. Three mouths to feed on one man's salary, no matter how decent he was being paid, couldn't have been good for anything. They were even living in a normal house on top of that.

At least it would only be for a year. Any longer and the country would likely absorb me completely.

As it stands I'm going to live this excursion out like any other. All I need to do is fit in – that's all I need to do to keep myself from going nuts. Not pissing off my uncle would probably be a solid idea too. Having done this too many times I already know that getting close to Nanako is pretty much off the table – the kids always have their own mental issues and she would likely be no different. Even then I'd still probably stick out like a sore thumb until mid May. Provided that I don't stand out as someone who clearly doesn't give a shit. Otherwise I'll be the talk of the school until December.

I get off of the train, taking my time. It wasn't as though I cared if I didn't get off in time – I'd probably be living near the next stop in due time anyway. So this was Inaba – even though the countryside was supposed to be 'different' it seemed like the same old shit to me – lots of littering everywhere, a lot of people screwing around on their phones, people missing their train at the last second because they were too busy getting a drink – the same basic crap.

I find myself in the late afternoon sun – god, did I hate the sun. I know we'd be screwed out of roughly ninety percent of consumable material without it, but it's not like it ever does anything else but make it really hard to see anything.

But not that far off I see the main road leading into the town – I had to assume that my uncle was somewhere in that general direction.

As I head down the stairs, I accidentally bump into the railing. A few feet later and I realize that I dropped my phone. Off to a wonderful start, huh?

I turn around – someone is already where I'd been, my phone in their hands. It was a girl with black hair, wearing a white dress shirt and striped thigh-highs that had no business existing.

"You dropped this." She says. "This is yours, right?"

"Uh… Yeah, thanks." I take my phone back from her. She turns away and heads off into the train station. I had to assume she was some kind of traveler too – I wonder, does this town make you adopt awkward clothing styles? Because if so I want to go somewhere else right now.

I turn around – a few feet away stand the two people in the photo.

"Hey, over here!" Ryoutarou calls out to me. As he does so, Nanako seems to cower behind him.

I head over to them without delay. He shakes my hand.

"Well, you're more handsome in person than in your photo." He jokes. I try my best to pull a smile out of my ass – it wasn't a great line to open on, but hell, I can't do any better. "Welcome to Inaba. I'm Ryotaro Dojima. I'll be looking after you… Let's see… I'm your mother's younger brother, and that about sums it up."

"It's nice to meet you." I reply.

He then pushes his daughter forward. "This here's my daughter… Come on, Nanako. Introduce yourself to your cousin."

The girl seems to look my way for all of a moment before her eyes dart away. "…'lo." She squeaks before hiding behind her father again. It was actually really cute, cute enough to get me to admit it was cute. And I for the most part hate cute things.

Ryotaro laughs. "What're you so shy for?" Nanako responds by punching him in the leg. He laughs it off before continuing. "Well then, let's get going. My car's over there."

And with that we wordlessly walked to his car and drove off towards his house, stopping for gas along the way. I took the opportunity to spend a substantial amount of time out of a moving vehicle for the first time in a few hours. Nanako takes the opportunity to use the bathroom while Dojima seems to be off doing his own thing.

"Hi! Welcome to Moel!" The attendant greets us. He was somewhat odd looking, his silver hair and red attire not going well together at all his red eyes were somewhat odd looking too – and at that point I realize that he's not a he at all and in fact a she. "Are you taking a trip?" she asks rather politely despite her somewhat rough voice.

"No, we just went to pick him up. He just moved here from the city." Ryotaro explains while gesturing to me.

"The city, huh…?" The attendant seems to go off in her own world for a moment, looking me over with curiosity.

"Fill up my car while you're at it. Regular's fine." Dojima says.

"Right away, sir!"

Ryotaro goes off to smoke, leaving me alone with the attendant.

"Are you in high school?" She asks innocently enough.

"Uh, yeah, I am." I reply somewhat awkwardly.

"Does it surprise a city boy to see how little there is out here?"

"I've been in worse places, believe me."

"I don't know… There's so little to do, I'm sure you'll get bored fast. You'll either be hanging out with your friends or doing part-time jobs." I almost grimace when she mentions the word 'job.' For all the crap I give people about not doing anything to contribute, the idea of contributing myself isn't a very luxurious idea. "Speaking of which, we're actually looking for part-time help right now. Give it some thought, why don't you? We don't mind if you're a student."

Working at a gas station? Well, it's nothing stupid like folding cranes or making envelopes – maybe it'd be a nice place to start out.

"Alright, I'll think about it."

She extends her hand – we shake, and in that moment I get a better look at her eyes.

There was something about them – something that I just couldn't quite grasp –

"Oh, I should get back to work." The attendant suddenly snaps back to reality, moving away. We'd both evidently been lost in each other's eyes for some time.

How strange. The last time a girl got me stunned like that was –

At this point Nanako has come back and opened the car door. But my attention shoots straight past her, when in the distance I catch a glimpse of something – Ryotaro was talking to someone fairly young, perhaps my age, standing next to a fairly elderly looking woman.

The young girl several feet away turns in my direction –

She looks different. Very different. But I know for certain –

Our eyes meet for all of a moment. But it was enough for us both to know the other was there.

It's her.

Yukiko Amagi.

How wonderful. It looks like my past is starting to catch up to me.

Maybe everything leading up to now _did _matter.

After all, here she is.

Someone I never should have seen ever again.


	12. Resemblance

_**2.2 Resemblance**_

_Yomotsu Hirasaka  
__April 12__th__, 2011  
__For Now, My Name is Yu Narukami. _

It was only a few hours later that I fell asleep – and found myself in a place unlike anywhere I'd ever been before. Having been just about everywhere in the world, this whole situation came as a bit of a shock for me – but I had more to worry about than simply questioning where was – there was still the matter of how I was going to get out.

It was clearly somewhere out of the bounds of what I thought was possible – a path of blood red cubes seemed to stretch into the distance, while the walls and ceiling were simply nowhere at all – there was only this seemingly impervious fog that kept me from seeing much of anything.

Oh well – now's not the time to lose heart. I had to stay optimistic. If I followed the path, surely I'd end up somewhere I'd want to be.

I take a few steps down the pathway – and a harsh, clearly inhuman voice suddenly invades my ears.

_Do you seek the truth?_

_If it's the truth you desire, come and find me._

What was this about truth, now? The only thing I care about right now is finding the way out. But anyhow, the voice sounded like it came from up ahead, so I continue onward.

The path seems to go on for far too long – I felt as though I'd spent at least ten minutes just aimlessly wandering forward. But as long as I kept going, there had to be some sort of exit or at least the source of that voice.

The path eventually feels unnaturally long. The voice sounded close enough that it should've been fairly close, but this path seemed to go on forever, the fog gradually becoming thicker. I could only barely make out the red pattern beneath me, and it would only be a matter of time before the path vanished entirely.

…_Do you not see yet? _The voice suddenly speaks out again, this time nowhere near as low as it had been only a few moments ago. It almost sounded concerned, even if only for a brief moment.

_The longer this farce continues, the longer your path to the truth will become…_

Lovely – one of _these _people. Speaking in riddles just wastes everyone's time – and time was something that I never seem to have a lot of.

At some point, perhaps after a total of forty minutes had passed, I find a large door with a strange red and black pattern painted on it. I could feel it – something was behind the door. Likely the source of that voice. Well, it wasn't as though I'd get anywhere by _not _going through the door – I touch the door and it opens on its own.

And in a matter of seconds I find myself in an empty void, filled with nothing but fog.

But just barely – through the fog I can make out a figure. It's almost completely enveloped by the fog, but I can see them. Floating in the air was a not particularly tall looking humanoid shape – that was literally all I could tell. The fog was simply too thick to ascertain anything else.

I then notice – I have a sword in my hand. A cheap but clearly usable katana, seemingly extremely worn over time.

_So… You are the one pursuing me… How typical. _

I hear a low chuckle. Oh, so now the only somewhat disembodied voice was going to mock me on top of everything else. What a lovely first day in Inaba this turned out to be.

_No matter. Try all you like… _

And seemingly on impulse I feel the need – the need to attack. Faced with this figure – I had the sudden urge to strike. I move towards the figure, striking it with the katana – I clearly felt the impact, but the figure didn't seem to care all that much.

_Hmmm… It would seem that, as usual, you can see a little, despite the fog…_

I ignore the voice – I strike again, this time twice, unable to understand why this asshole didn't seem to care that he was being attacked. I move in again, this time aiming to take off his arm – once again, my blade makes its mark, but seemingly nothing happens. I'm unable to verify if his arm had indeed come clean off despite having felt it do so myself. I grit my teeth, moving away for just a moment –

And suddenly something behind me seems to move – a bolt of lightning descends upon the figure, but once again it amounts to nothing.

_Indeed, you possess an interesting quality… Just like every son of man who came before you._

I move in again, ignoring whatever it was that seemed to have appeared behind me and this time run my sword straight through the figure's chest, clearly feeling the blade sink into its flesh and exit the other side. I rip my sword out – only to find that once more seemingly nothing has changed.

_How many times have I seen this pattern repeat…? One thousand times? Ten thousand? But perhaps in an age such as yours, there is value to one like you existing… Despite that, you shall not catch me so easily… _

I swing again – but the figure seems to fade into the fog. My swing hits nothing.

_If it is the truth you seek, your search will be even harder than this._

Every strike misses – every move I make hits nothing but thin air. Every time I move in I could swear I see the figure, but in the next instant there is simply nothing there. My attacks become ferocious – I was more pissed off than anything else.

_Everyone sees what they want to… And the fog only deepens. But are you different? _

I don't even solicit an answer – I continue my aimless barrage, the thing moving behind me doing more or less the same thing with about as much success as I was having.

_Will we meet again?… In a place other than here?_

I hear that low chuckle again –

_I will look forward to it… _

And with that, I suddenly find myself awake in bed. It's early the next morning – the 12th. My first day of school. Well that was probably the worst way to rest up for school. I still felt exhausted from that whole display – like I hadn't slept at all. My eyes felt heavy and everything. Had that all just been a dream? It certainly hadn't felt like it, but what else could it have been?

I eventually wander downstairs after procrastinating enough and find Nanako by herself in the kitchen eating breakfast. She had prepared some for me as well – toast, fairly basic but certainly nothing to laugh at, especially after a night like mine. I notice Dojima was nowhere in sight, so I figured he was on the job as he had been last night.

It then occurred to me – Nanako could cook?

I ask her and she responds with a smile, even though it was a bit of a nervous one. "Yeah. Dad can't cook, but I can make toast and stuff. I can't make dinner, and when I don't go shopping we usually order out." She returns to eating without another word.

I study her briefly as I get to work on my own toast. She certainly seemed typical for a child, but she seemed extremely reliable for someone her age.

"Where's your father?" I ask, now genuinely interested in what her response would be.

"He said something came up, so he won't be back for awhile." She seems to want to say something else, but she looks up at me before speaking again. "You're starting school today, right?" She then smiles at me the best she could. "My school's on the way, so let's go together."

I decide to stow my curiosity for the time being and think about what was coming up only a short hour or two from now. Starting today, I'd have to put on my high school student face for several hours a day and on top of that maintain a somewhat low profile in an already tightly knit town. Ryotaro had gone on about how everyone in Inaba knows each other and that no one was really a stranger after enough time had passed. It was the sort of scenario that I dreaded more than anything else – I'd be gone in a year, so what did I care for bonding with other people?

The funny thing is that before now, I wouldn't have to provide myself with an answer – but now things were different, and all because of her –

Yukiko Amagi.

We'd met some time ago – perhaps three years ago. For an extended period of time she'd been living in a small apartment with her mother while tensions in her actual town of residence, which I had to assume was Inaba, died down. Evidently there was some scandal involving her family's inn that her mother had not wanted her to be wrapped up in, especially at her age.

I'd insisted on removing myself from caring about what she went on about. After all, I'd never see her again after that year had gone by. But she always made it her business to know what I was going on about. She never left me alone for very long – perhaps it was because she empathized with my situation or perhaps it was because I was the only one who didn't treat her like shit because of her good looks as more or less every girl attending that school had that year.

She battled through all of it, though. It came to the point where it seemed like she just didn't know when to give up. Out of every girl I'd ever known over my seven years of constant travel, there was never a more different one. Out of literally hundreds of people I'd come to know the names of, she stood out. She wasn't like the rest of them – she was different, and that alone turned her into someone I could try to sympathize with.

She was the one time – the one time I allowed myself to get close enough to someone that I'd have been genuinely caring for them.

It came to the point where Yukiko wanted to take our 'relationship' to the next level. But for her it was the same as it was for me – she'd only come out with this out of necessity. I was going to be gone in a year, as would she – I almost made myself forget that. I didn't need to jeopardize my secured standing in this social group for what little time I had left in it by visibly becoming closer to her. Would I have accepted her under other circumstances? Perhaps. Regardless, I turned her down, perhaps too quickly, but even then she always persisted. Things didn't change in the slightest. But I knew that she had to resent me to some degree, especially on the day that I left that town – when she'd told me she wouldn't ever forget me in the least caring way imaginable.

Today I'd have to see her again. I'd be stuck in a town with her for another year. I could only imagine what had happened to her over that span of time.

I head out with Nanako – it had been raining last night, and the rain had persisted somewhat into this morning, so Inaba was in full spring mode. The air was a bit dense and there wasn't any sign of the sun whatsoever. That was all it took for me to step outside without any distaste in my mouth. It was on days like this that I could go outside without reserve – I just _really_ hated the sun.

Nanako and I talk about random things on the way to school. I try my best not to pry into her family life – I mostly asked about her friends at school and what she did for fun for the sake of breaking the ice. Her responses were funnily enough more adult in response – she spends her free time cooking dinner and she meets with her friends rarely but often enough to seem friendly. Nanako definitely had the power to make just about anyone – aside from me, of course – smile as widely as possible, so making friends definitely wasn't a problem, nor would making connections later in her life be provided she kept things up. For a child her age, she was definitely more refined than most of the adults I'd had experience with – if she ever got married she'd definitely be the one wearing the pants in the relationship.

Eventually we have to part – it would seem that Nanako walked a little further than she needed to just for the sake of talking with me – it would seem that I made a good impression. As she walks off I find myself puzzled – I can't really understand how someone like her being biologically related to me – on my mother's side, of all things – could be possible, but then again perhaps the bulk of my family being socially conditioned into being scum of the earth material and my constant exposure to them made me a bit biased.

Eventually Yasogami High School comes into view – out of every school I've ever been to, this one was the least extravagant. But perhaps that was a good thing – although I doubt it had any serious effect on the uselessness of the students. As usual, I'd avoid all the stares that I'd doubtlessly get from being a transfer student and keep to myself – of course with Yukiko in the picture, that wouldn't be anywhere near as easy as it should have been.

I sigh before walking through the entrance – almost right away I feel the stares. Damn my silver hair for standing out so much. Also damn my height. I'm taller than half the people I've seen so far. Way not to stand out, Yu.

I eventually manage to zone out enough that I realize that the building itself was actually kind of nostalgic feeling on the inside. It was very similar to my old cram school – I remembered the scenery more than my actual experience there, but I remember appreciating the interior to some extent. The noise coming from the first year hall was uncharacteristic for students adjusting to a new school, but then again they all probably knew each other anyway because of what sort of town this was. I decide to ignore it all and head straight to the faculty office – hopefully I'd be able to at least get to my classroom before having to throw out my usual introduction.

Of course the moment I walk through those doors I come into contact with who might be the most irritating man on the face of the earth.

Kinshiro Morooka. Public Enemy Number One, at least by Inaba's standards. From the moment we met, his eyes told me he saw me as nothing more than a little turd he had to look after to keep his job. He says a bunch of random crap about the school and how I'd better not try to sleep with any of the girls – this is the sort of man who generalizes people, very much like I do. But the only difference between us is that he is about as obnoxious about it as I believe to be humanly possible. He doesn't see people for what they truly are like I do – he just sees each person as a sack of shit identical to the last and is so invincibly ignorant I'd be perfectly content if he didn't wake up tomorrow.

He leads me to my classroom – he has me wait outside for a few minutes while he takes attendance and hands out all the basic stuff that I'd already been given. Eventually he begins his whole introductory segment after he'd settled everything else he had to do.

All the while I hear people whispering about me – about the new transfer student, if he's a guy, if he's a girl, if they're a weirdo – it's the same stuff I've heard time and time again. I've become almost completely impervious to all of it.

"I'm Kinshiro Morooka, your homeroom teacher from today forward!" He speaks rather pompously. "First things first! Just because it's spring doesn't mean you can swoon over each other like love-struck baboons. Long as I'm around, you students are going to be as pure as the driven snow." At this point I figure he's going to be awhile, so I walk into the classroom somewhat nonchalantly. I get a couple of funny looks and some people almost start laughing when they realize that Morooka hasn't even noticed me yet.

Eventually he suddenly realizes I'm standing next to him and without missing a step he immediately segways to my introduction. "Now I hate wasting my time, but I'd better introduce this transfer student. _This _sad sacks' been thrown from the big city out into the middle of nowhere like yesterdays' garbage." I briefly glance in his direction, verifying that he'd actually said such a thing. "And he's just as much of a loser here as he was there, so none of you girls better not get any ideas about hitting on him." He turns towards me. "Tell 'em your name, kid. And make it quick."

Like hell I was going to.

Fuck it. I might be tossed around like garbage but I'm sure as hell not letting you call me a loser for it, you sad sack of shit…!

I almost consider decking him in the face right then and there. But

"…You calling me a loser?" I say as casually as possible, narrowing my eyes at him.

Morooka seems taken aback. Probably no one has ever talked back to him his whole life – looks like right now was the time for a rude awakening. "That's it, you're on my shit list. Effective immediately!" He shouts at me. Oh no, sir, _you're _on _my _shit list. Although that's a list four miles long anyhow, so it's not much of an achievement. I hate him about as much as I hate all three of my aunts.

"Now, listen up –" He continues, but before he can drill his anger into me any further, a voice calls out from a one of the rows in the back.

"Excuse me! Is it okay if the transfer student sits back here?" A girl in an absurdly green sweater calls out.

Morooka suddenly snaps back to reality – he's in front of a class and he's supposed to be teaching, not drilling his ignorant bilge into my brain. "Huh…? Yeah, sure. You hear that? Your seat's back there. So hurry up and siddown already!"

I silently move down the row – pretty much all eyes are on me because of that stunt I pulled – once again I failed at keeping a low profile. But I felt at least a tad more courageous for it – it had been a long time since I'd talked down to the establishment. I take my seat, completely averting my eyes from that red cardigan I still wanted to pretend wasn't there. At least I hadn't introduced myself formally. Maybe she wouldn't notice. I take my seat and she doesn't move a muscle – maybe she _hadn't _noticed. I almost sigh with relief before the girl sitting next to me suddenly starts talking.

"He's the worst, huh? Rotten luck for you to get stuck in this class. Well, we'll just have to hang in there for a year." And right away with the small talk. I shrug my shoulders in response – I'm in no mood to talk to anyone.

Almost right away I hear the gossip circling around the room. I completely tune out all of it, including Morooka's rambling. I manage to focus on the back of the seat in front of me as I slowly start to doze off.

But then two girls from the far end of the room suddenly come up to me and start talking to me. Asking about what the city was like and how crappy it is out here – the same thing I've been hearing non-stop since yesterday. I try to answer as typically as possible, but the whole time I'm focusing on the girl who was sitting next to me – she had gotten up and sat in the seat in front of her and was talking to _her _about very typical things. Even though I could only see them out of the corner of my eye, I managed to ascertain that Yukiko was sort of doing the same.

Eventually one of the girls in front of me realizes that I'm not paying any substantial attention to what they're saying. "Hey… Are you alright?" She asks somewhat politely.

"A-Ah, yeah, I'm fine. Sorry, it's been a long couple of days, you know?" I play it off as normally as possible.

"Oh, that's true!" The other one suddenly comes to the most obvious realization in the world. "We're sorry. We just-"

"It's fine." I give my usual fake smile, waving off her concern. "…But if you don't mind me asking, who's the girl that was sitting next to me?" I was honestly curious to know who Yukiko had become friends with – if I recall correctly, she mentioned having a friend back home at one time.

The two of them look at each other before laughing out loud. Because that's a substantial response to my question. One of them eventually responds. "That's Chie Satonaka… Don't tell me you're interested in her, are you?"

"What, is she untouchable or something?"

The two of them laugh again. "She's probably the most ridiculous person in the world." One of them responds. I'm about to question further before the PA System suddenly goes live.

"_Attention all teachers. Please report to the faculty office for a brief staff meeting. All students must return to their classrooms and not leave the school until further notice."_

The two girls return to their seats. Morooka leaves the room in a huff and the discussion continues, now about the current situation. The noise doesn't die down for even a second.

I find myself with virtually nothing to do. I couldn't leave school even though everything had more or less wrapped up, so I find myself gradually shifting my eyes in Yukiko's direction. She's talking to a guy who nervously walks off after a few seconds – he'd mentioned an announcer staying at her in, although I didn't quite hear her reply. She was _still _soft spoken it seems.

But the guy returns to his group of friends – and they bring up that announcer again.

Announcer…?

Come to think of it, wasn't there a news report about an announcer on last night?

Ah, right –

Mayumi Yamano. The announcer having an affair with that politician, Taro Namatame, who actually lived in this town. It was no surprise that people would be talking about it. But evidently, there was cause to believe that the announcer was staying at the Amagi Inn. I wonder how true that was.

Eventually the PA comes on again.

"_Attention all students. There has been an incident inside the school district. Police officers have been dispatched around the school zone. Please stay calm and contact your parents or guardians as soon as possible and quickly leave the school grounds. Do not disturb the police officers. Head directly home."_

With that the talk becomes a bit more panicked, although most people are just glad to be leaving the building. The two girls that had been talking to me suddenly get the idea of heading _towards _the supposed danger zone. I decide that I have nowhere important to be and so I wait for the bulk of the traffic to clear out – there was no chance in hell that something would happen here, so I had nothing to fear.

Eventually, though, the girl that was sitting next to me, Chie Satonaka, suddenly appears to my side.

"Hey, are you going home by yourself?" She asks nicely enough. I look in her direction – only to realize that Yukiko is standing right next to her, her eyes completely averted from me. I do the same – Chie doesn't catch it, but she clearly feels the tension in the air. "W-Why don't you come with us…?" She trails off a bit.

"O-Oh, sure. That'd be fine." I manage to stammer. This was just the worst possible scenario for a first day of school, at least by every standard I was familiar with.

She becomes visibly relaxed. "Oh, I nearly forgot. I'm Chie Satonaka. You know I sit next to you right?"

"Who wouldn't…? I sigh under my breath before I suddenly realize I'd said that out loud. "O-Oh, yeah, sure I do."

She smiles warmly at me. "It's nice to meet you."

"Likewise." I finally say something plainly.

Chie seems like she's about to introduce Yukiko who feels it coming and freezes on the spot, but before she can say anything someone approaches her.

"Um…Miss Satonaka?" I face him – oh, it's this guy. Come to think of it, I think I saw this guy fall off his bike or something this morning. I was too busy talking to Nanako to pay him any mind past that, though. In his hands seems to be a DVD case. "This was really awesome. Like, the way they moved was just so amazing to see…" He compliments the movie. Evidently he liked it, although his face indicates anything but.

He then cracks under pressure and shoves the case in her direction. "And… I'm really sorry! Just please, have mercy on me until my next paycheck!" He almost screams.

In the next few seconds, I learn what those two had meant when they said that Chie was the most ridiculous person in the world.

She takes the DVD case, and the moment she sees the cracked DVD inside she strikes the boy in the crotch with her left leg. And she then goes on about kung fu for a full minute while the boy's future children hang in the balance. Yukiko just stands there completely emotionless, like she's seen this sort of thing happen a million times. And I had a feeling she had.

Eventually Chie and Yukiko leave the room and head out into the hall while I consider helping the poor guy.

"…Hey, are you alright?" I eventually cave in and ask him.

He looks up before realizing that I'm not Chie and sighs with relief.

"O-Oh, I think I'll be fine… Gah, another critical hit to the nads like that one and I think I'm done for…" He groans.

"Hey, don't think like that. The first step in winning a woman's heart is to take their abuse and wear your scars proudly… Or something along those lines." No, what I said didn't have any context to it, but saying stuff like that randomly that was what got people thinking.

He gives me a confused look. "What does that have to do with anything?"

I shrug my shoulders. "You made me come up with something motivational. It's your fault."

"Motivational, eh…? Yeah, maybe I _do _need to get motivated." He grins painfully as he tries to stand up straight, my lazy efforts to get him in gear paying off. "Yeah, I'll definitely survive the next time!" He almost shouts triumphantly. I feel like smacking him across the face but decide against it. At least he was "Oh, by the way, I don't think I've told you my name yet. I'm Yosuke Hanamura."

"Yu Narukami. Nice to meet you… But you're _sure_ you're alright?" I'd normally overlook stuff like this, but he _did _just get kicked in the crotch by what might be the strongest legs a woman could possibly have.

"I'm fine. Thanks though…" He then whispers into my ear. "I'm telling you right now. Change your seat – no, _leave this school _before you regret it. She'll act all nice and'll lend you stuff and all that, but the _second _she starts asking you to take her out for steak it's all over. You'll never be the same again."

"Thanks for the advice." I almost laugh, but I suddenly realize that I'd accepted Satonaka's invite to walk home with her. "I'll see you around, I guess." I quickly get out of that room before Yosuke has the opportunity to whine any more about Chie.

As it stands I've been here for two days. And already I've run into people who should only ever exist as anime characters. They're all too… _unique_ to be real. But they are, and I'm still not sure what to make of it. But on top of that –

When I leave the building Yukiko and Chie are standing near a boy clearly not from our school – I recognize him almost immediately – Mitsuo Kubo. A shut-in otaku who's gone by the name NiedtHart on the internet. Or rather, he _used _to, until he got laughed at for how fish like his face was – he eventually stopped showing up online after the 'FishHart' jokes started. Having spent more hours than I'd care to admit on the internet I found out about him when his face became a viral meme for a few months. How I managed to run into _him _of all people in this seemingly unrealistic town is beyond me.

He was talking to Yukiko it seems. Two guys standing to my side suddenly start talking.

"What's up with _him_? What school's _he_ from?"

"I bet you a can of TaP he gets knocked out."

"No bet. Haven't you heard how difficult the Amagi Challenge_ is_?"

Before I can close in Kubo leaves quickly. Yosuke appears pretty much out of nowhere on his bike and proceeds to talk to the two girls as I head towards them –

Out of the corner of my eye I spot something –

I turn, and what seems to be shimmering blue butterfly, sparkling like diamonds, flies past me. I blink several times – but it's gone.

Was I seeing things? I shake my head a few times. It's all because of that nightmare I had last night. I sigh again before I finally approach the two girls, Yosuke having already rode off on his bike.

I try to play it off the best I can. I rejoin the two, hang around while Chie suddenly decides to change her plans, and before too long we're off, walking down the path towards the shopping district. I'd been planning on scoping out all of the stores anyway, so I didn't object to Chie's new trajectory. I vaguely remember Yosuke's warning about steak, but I pass it off as paranoia on his part.

On the way there Chie finally gets the hint. She finally notices that Yukiko and I are completely avoiding speaking to each other and tries to start up a conversation all three of us could participate in.

She goes off for a few minutes talking about how Inaba isn't really all that well known for anything, before listing off things it _is _well known for, before suddenly realizing that she's going nowhere and drops Yukiko's cue. "Oh, wait, there's the Amagi Inn! Yukiko's family runs it. It's the pride of Inaba." Yes, Miss Oblivious, I'm well aware of the Amagi Inn. Even if I _didn't _already know Yukiko personally, only everyone in class was talking about it this morning.

Chie pokes Yukiko in the shoulder a few times.

Eventually she finally speaks.

"W-What…? It's just an old inn."

I feel myself strangely disappointed. I guess I was kind of expecting her voice to have changed drastically. But alas, she's just the same Yukiko. Which meant….

"Oh, no way!" Chie says almost too quickly, trying to keep the conversation going. Yukiko wasn't going to make it easy for her, at any rate. "It's been in all sorts of magazines as a hidden treasure! It's a great inn. It's been going for generations, and Yukiko here is going to take over someday. The inn attracts lots of visitors to Inaba, so it pretty much keeps the town going."

"…I don't think that's entirely true." Yukiko sighs.

Chie seems at a loss for a few seconds. But I could tell the mouse wheel was slowly turning, and it would only be a matter of seconds before she –

"Sooo… Tell me," Oh god, here we go. "You think Yukiko's cute, huh?"

I can already tell that Yukiko is about to burst. I choose to keep my mouth shut but…

I can't keep myself from admitting it. The main reason why I refused to look even remotely in Yukiko's direction the entire day was purely over how much her appearance had changed. I knew her back when she was a somewhat short eighth grader. Now she was drop dead gorgeous. And I couldn't be more pissed off about it.

"Oh geez, are you blushing?!" While Chie was as dull a knife as you could come across, she happened to notice the pink haze on my cheeks. How wonderful. I'm beginning to wish I'd just hung out with Yosuke or something.

"Come on… Don't start this _again_…" Yukiko sighs again, this time her frustration clearly apparent in her voice. But Chie, being who she was, didn't notice at all.

"She's really popular at school, but she's never had a boyfriend. Kinda weird, huh?"

So that settles it.

…She hasn't changed. At all.

So that means, in a few seconds –

"Y-You shouldn't believe that, alright?!" She starts shouting. Chie promptly shuts up and gives Yukiko a somewhat bewildered look. "It's not true that I'm popular, or that I've never had a boyfriend… W-Wait, no, what I meant to say was that I don't _need _a boyfriend!" Finally our eyes meet – and just like that it's back to the way things were three years ago.

Almost like a perfect reflection of that Yukiko I always knew, she defiantly points her finger at me. "A-And you! It's your first day of school in a new town, where you don't know anyone, and your shirt's not tucked in and your collar's popped! How can you expect to make a good first impression that way?! Not to mention how you blew things with Mister Morooka- How much trouble do you intend to get in?!"

And just like that – she got right back into the swing of thing.

Any embarrassment I had is gone. There was no way in hell I was going to let her talk down to me like that…!

"_Me_?! What about _you?!_" I shout right back at her._ "_What the hell's an 'Amagi Challenge'?!"

"W-Where did you hear about that?!"

"Only every guy in the school's brought it up at least once already. Well?!"

"I-It's nothing you need to be concerned about! _You _should just be worried about finding your way home! Do you even have _any _idea how big this town actually is? You could get lost just about anywhere!" Our exaggeration match begins while Chie just stands there completely bewildered. She likely had no idea that there was a side to Yukiko quite like this one –

You see, when I said Yukiko constantly involved herself with what I was doing – I _know _you were expecting something a lot tenderer than this. Once upon a time, Yukiko was what we call a 'tsundere'. She'd get pissed off at the people closest to her all the time before turning around and thanking them for always being with her. These days it seemed that she was more reserved than anything else, but perhaps my reappearance had reawakened the beast inside her.

This is a _lovely _first day of school, isn't it?

Yukiko refuses to budge on the 'Amagi Challenge' bit and before too long, as she used to, she gives up and turns away with a huff. "I'm going home. I can't put up with this right now." She storms off in the opposite direction before stopping suddenly. "Are you coming or not, Chie?"

Chie suddenly remembers that she's standing there. "O-Oh, okay, Yukiko, I'm coming…" She looks in my direction but not fully at me. "Uh… Sorry, I guess we'll go to Junes some other time…" She trails off as she follows behind Yukiko.

I sigh and turn away from them, heading off down the path – if I was right this was the way Nanako and I had gone this morning – I'd reach familiar territory before too long.

Once I made it to the residential district I came across the cause of all the commotion back at school. One of the side streets had been completely sealed off with caution tape and there were police cars everywhere. I hear housewives talking about it, mentioning that something had just been taken down. I look around, scanning the supposed crime scene. Sure enough, Ryotaro was there, standing with several other officers. With this many officers in a small town like this all at one crime scene, this had to be nothing short of murder.

Out from behind one of the cars came a man in a cheap looking business suit, running straight towards a trash can that was only a few feet away from me. Without warning he vomits into the can, swearing under his breath.

"Fuck… How the hell did it end up like this…?" He almost whispers before puking again.

Ryotaro takes notice of him and looks our way. "Adachi! Quit acting like a rookie!" He shouts.

"S-Sorry, Dojima-san…" The man sighs, although it was likely that Ryotaro hadn't heard him.

Ryotaro then notices me standing off to the side watching the whole exchange and excuses himself before heading towards me.

"I thought we told that damn principle not to let the kids through here…" He sighs. It would seem there _was _a bit more to this than just some freak accident.

"Is something wrong?" I ask him.

"…Right, you're not familiar with the town yet. If you're going home you want to take that street back there – hey, Adachi, don't just stand there! Get back to work!" The man he addresses moves away from the trash can and disappears behind the police cab again. "Damn slacker… Oh, right." He points to a side street I'd walked past. "You take that road all the way down, make a right, and we're all the way at the base of the hill."

"Oh right. Thanks, and… Uh, sorry if I've caused any trouble." I knew better than to have bad relations with any cop – of course the fact that Ryotaro was my uncle made it all the more imperative that I refrain from doing anything stupid.

"It's not a big deal. It's better just being you by yourself than a group of dumb kids, right?"

I smile, nodding my head. I turn to leave, taking note of the man named Adachi who was still hurling into the trash can.

"Uh…" I hesitate to talk to him, but considering how he'd been puking rather consistently for the last three minutes or so, I'd feel bad just leaving him like that. He was probably being worked ragged all day – the sort of person I couldn't really hate no matter how hard I tried. "…Are you going to be alright?"

"Ah…Yeah, I'll be fine." He eventually responds, realizing that I'd directed my concern towards him. After coughing up little more than saliva he finally stats upright, looking me over. "You're Dojima-san's nephew, huh? You're way too tall to be Nanako-chan's age." He says with a laugh. "Oh, but that's a Yasogami uniform. You're in high school, right?"

"Yeah, that's right. I'm Yu Narukami. I'm going to be living here for the next year."

"Really? Only a _year?_ Aren't _you _lucky." He laughs again. "Tohru Adachi. Pleased to meet ya." He says with a rather sheepish smile. We shake hands – his hands are clammy and his grip is only somewhat strong – he's about as thick as a sheet of paper, but at least he seemed to be a pretty nice guy. "I'm guessing you're from an actual city, huh? It's gotta be hard having to move out to a place like this."

"It's not _that _bad. Seems sort of unique in its own sort of way."

"You've been here for a grand total of two days. You'll be just like me in a few weeks, just you wait."

"You don't like the country side?"

"Nah, it's not my thing. There's even less to do here than there was back at the academy." He smiles wryly.

Off in the distance I hear Ryotaro shouting again. "Adachi, are you going to do your job or what?!"

"A-Ah, right, sorry Dojima-san!" He shouts back before turning towards me again. "Ah well… I guess I should get going." He starts walking off towards the other officers. "If you're ever bored out of your mind, you know where to find me… Wait, you're a bit too young to drink, aren't you? Damn. Well, whatever, I'll see ya around!" He smiles again as he disappears from view.

Well, he was an okay guy, I guess. He seems a bit too lazy for his own good, but at least he didn't have that entitled attitude I've always hated, so that was a plus.

I head home without stopping again, determined to sleep off all of the trauma today left me with.

I learn later that night that the incident on that street had to do with the murder of Mayumi Yamano, the television announcer. Her body had been found on that street – from there I was able to make several assumptions on my own that Ryotaro eventually verified himself when he returned home that night. Evidently her involvement in the Taro Namatame scandal led to her temporary retirement to Inaba, her old hometown. Her house was mobbed with paparazzi, so she ended up staying at the Amagi Inn overnight – it was then that she went missing despite having evidently been under police guard until a short few moments before. Ryotaro himself had been at the station that night dealing with that whole mess when it had happened – it happened under all of their noses. I could only hope that Adachi wasn't somehow involved with the screw-up – the last thing he needed was to get fired on top of everything else.

It's amazing how quickly things can happen when you're caught off guard. In my case, I never thought I could be so caught off guard to begin with – but all it did was prove that there was more to this seemingly terribly ordinary town that I had given it credit for.

* * *

_Yasogami High School  
__April 13__th__, 2011_

School had ended – this day had been far less stressful than the abysmal mess yesterday had been, much to my delight, but at the same time much to my chagrin, as it meant that I would have to explain things to Chie involving Yukiko.

Fortunately enough for me, Yosuke came to the rescue – Chie convinced him to buy her steak in exchange for cracking her DVD and all was forgotten, at least for the time being. I decided to tag along for the sake of not having to go anywhere else – at least Yukiko had to do things at her inn today, so I wouldn't have any more mishaps with her.

Yosuke brings us to the food court on the roof of the Junes building – it had only occurred to me then that he was actually the son of the manager that ran this place – if I played my cards right, Nanako could even get discounts from the clerks, although thinking about I doubt that the manager's son had anywhere near the level of pull with management to pull something like that off.

"Oh come on, taking us to your place doesn't count." Chie whines, her rather delectable looking cut of steak sitting on her plate mostly untouched.

"Hey, you wanted steak. You're getting steak. I'm not paying for anything fancier than this."

"You could've at least told _me _you were almost broke. I would've chipped in." I point out something fairly obvious. Blowing out one's wallet on Chie's steak cravings wasn't a fate that _anyone _deserved.

"Nah, I couldn't. You're new here and everything – it wouldn't be right." He seems somewhat grateful that I'd offered, though.

"You've gotta treat us to some _real _food next time." Chie chimes in, completely ignoring what Yosuke had just said. "You've gotta pay for Yukiko's too."

"Yeah, yeah, when hell freezes over, maybe… Speaking of, though… Where' _is _Yukiko-san?" It dawns on Yosuke that Yukiko is nowhere to be seen.

"She's been _really _busy with the inn work these last few days. It probably has to do with Mayumi Yamano." Chie seems a tad upset when she says that.

"Right, I'd heard she was staying at the inn. So that _was _true?" I ask her, the direction the conversation was heading in suddenly very appealing.

"Yeah, every word… Well, aside from the usual rumor mill kind of stuff…" Chie trails off before something suddenly clicks in her head. "Oh, but speaking of, have either of you heard the rumor about –"

"Can we get off the rumor topic, already? I'm already sick of them today… More talk about soul mates and all that other bullshit…" Yosuke complains.

"Oh, but it's about that! You know the story – about the Midnight Channel. On a rainy night, if you're alone in your room, you've got a TV and all the lights are off, when the clock strikes midnight your TV will suddenly turn on – and on it will be a picture of your soul mate."

"Sounds about as realistic as that one about the schoolboy and the talking cat." I sigh. "…So why exactly does this one stand out?"

"Because _waay_ too many people have had it happen to them… Come on, neither of you are curious at all?" Chie sighs upon noticing our disinterest. "Won't you two just give it a shot? Most of my friends had it happen to them – we should all try it tonight. It's going to be raining, right?"

"Why do I want to bother?" Yosuke groans painfully. "I'm probably not going to _get _home until midnight anyway."

"Is Junes really _that _busy at night?" Chie's skepticism is apparent. "Don't you guys close before midnight anyway?"

"Yeah, well… That's not the point, it's…" He sighs. "You know what? I'm not getting into this. Whatever, if I'm home I guess I'll try it out."

"You'll do it too, right?" Chie looks to me for a sign of approval.

I try my best not to sigh, I really do – I end up shrugging my shoulders. "Well, I guess I might as well."

Chie beams at me. "So it's settled! You guys had better not forget." _Of course _we wouldn't. Because you'd never let us hear the end of it if we did.

The conversation goes on. Chie mostly complains about the classes she's taking this year while Yosuke for the most part complains about her complaining. Evidently the two of them weren't even that close, but they definitely could've fooled me – these tow seemed like they'd been friends for years – it likely had more than enough to do with the whole 'Chie's tomboy personality' bit, but to some extent the two had to have at least not been strangers, especially if Yosuke had been around her long enough to have gone down the trail of expensive steak she leaves in her wake freely.

At some point, though, Yosuke suddenly takes note of someone behind us and in all of five seconds is standing in attention, about to head over to them – it's a girl, not much older than we were, if older at all, dressed in the Junes employee apron. There's certainly something about her though – she seems rather pale, and it most certainly had nothing to do with her skin color.

"Who's that?" I ask Chie – but the moment I see Yosuke greet her I more or less paint the whole picture on my own. "His girlfriend?"

Chie snorts with amusement. "He wishes."

Oh dear – it would seem Yosuke was the subject to the pains of unrequited love. Or at least something along those lines. Eventually he manages to bring her over to us to formally introduce her.

Saki Konishi – she was evidently the daughter of a couple of liquor store owners in town – she was working at Junes part time to make some money and spent a lot of her time reporting directly to Yosuke, who managed all of the part timers on his father's behalf. Yosuke was completely smitten with her – it was far too obvious that he had more than a sizable crush on her. Whatever there was about her that had stood out to him wasn't all that apparent to me, though – it likely had to do with her apparent tired state that even Yosuke managed to pick up on without much trouble. I decide to play things off like I usually do – I try to make Yosuke seem as much of a stand-up guy as possible, although I really had no reason to other than if I _did _accidentally drop anything about that whole 'critical hit to the nads' business he'd probably despise me for the rest of my life.

While Konishi talked, I noticed something that I didn't really ponder until my walk back home. Whenever she smiled, but most particularly whenever she smiled or laughed at something Yosuke said –

She was faking it. Her eyebrows didn't move a muscle – it was a fake smile, about as fake a smile as I've ever seen. Even faker than the ones I make myself wear all the time. But why she had such a fake smile – I couldn't have guessed.

I could only assume that Yosuke hadn't the slightest clue in the world. I consider telling him for a moment, but I decide against it – if there was any real consequence to any of it, I had a feeling that it would make itself known soon enough.

* * *

_Later That Evening, Dojima Residence_

It was relatively close to Nanako's bedtime when Ryotaro left for the station again, for roughly the third time in the last week if I've understood things correctly. It would seem that Nanako would spend all of her time watching TV when her father wasn't home and that it happened frequently enough that she didn't really seem visibly affected by it like any child her age doubtlessly would be.

We were sitting in the living room, watching the news, when a commercial for the local store in the Junes chain came on. Nanako happily sung along with the words – it would seem that she had an infatuation with Junes. At least she had _something _to be happy about.

The commercial looped several times. I sat through it and through Nanako's cheery singing and was prepared to as many times as was necessary before the time came to put her to bed – I couldn't exactly just ignore her on what was more or less the first normal evening we'd be spending together under these circumstances – that would just leave a bad impression. I'd probably piss of Ryotaro too.

The more of Nanako I saw, though, the more I had to question why she seemed so fundamentally different form every other child in my family. It's like we weren't related at all – she had none of the negative qualities the rest of my mother's relatives had, but on top of that she was probably more responsible than most of the adults in our family.

Eventually the song has looped enough that I'm able to recite the lyrics myself.

Nanako beams at me. "You memorized it already? I'm the best in my class!" She smiles from ear to ear.

"That's got to be some achievement."

"All my friends love Junes too! Their parents take them there all the time – I mostly just go by myself when we need groceries."

"After school? All by yourself?"

She nods several times.

"Hm… Impressive. I know a few grown men who couldn't pull off something like that."

"Really?" She seems very surprised, although the only real role model she had for what normal adults were like was her father who just by being who he was had already achieved more than any other man in our family. And perhaps Adachi, although she probably knew better than to look up to him of all people.

"I'm sure your dad's proud."

"…Really?" She seems somewhat hesitant to continue speaking, but she eventually speaks her mind. "You really think Dad's proud of me?"

"What makes you think he wouldn't be?"

"Well, he's always at work, and I don't think he's ever said so."

"Of course he's proud of you." I say it again. Why was I suddenly the comforting elder cousin all of a sudden?

"…I just wish he said it more often." She says somewhat sadly, her eyes shifting away from me and back to the television set. "Or that he'd go to Junes _with _me sometime."

I see it in her gaze almost immediately – this most certainly hadn't been the first time her father had left her by herself and she was left wondering if he really cared about her – in fact, she seemed particularly used to it. I could only imagine what kind of psychological damage being a child that has a father who would walk out on you on a fairly regular basis –

Oh, wait, that's not true at all – I don't have to imagine. I know exactly what it's like. It wasn't until then that I ever considered Nanako someone I'd share any sort of a bond with – but just like that I felt the need to connect with her.

"…You know, if it matters enough," I begin, "I _could _just start coming home earlier from now on. You know, when your dad's off doing his job. _I _could help you shop. If I'm going to be freeloading for a whole year." I'm not sure if she understood half of the slang I used, but it wasn't as though I was proficient at speaking to children to begin with, so it wasn't like I'd know any better.

But even then, she looks at me somewhat confused for a moment – I knew the look. Was I actually offering her something she didn't tell me she wanted? Was I being serious, or was I just trying to deceive her? It was the look that only intelligent people made – only people that really knew how the world works would ever hesitate in a situation like this one. And Nanako was only ten years old.

Eventually she smiles at me. "That would be nice."

I'm not sure if I smile back. But I'm not sure how I'd have been able to force it down if I wasn't.

That evening, after Nanako was in bed and Ryotaro had returned home, I decide to verify Chie's absurd rumor.

The clock had struck midnight. The lights were off. The small television set in my room was as lifeless as it always was. A few seconds pass by – nothing.

What had I been expecting? It _was _a rumor Chie had picked up, after all.

But the moment I turn away – the screen lights up.

I face the screen again – what the hell?

There was a woman on the screen…?

…

This is…

Who is this…?

I know I've seen that hair before –

It's Saki Konishi…?

So my soul mate was someone I'd only met a few hours ago?

But more importantly –

The TV was unplugged.

So then how –

But what's she –

She's calling… For me…?

No, that can't be the case…

But even then I try to reach out to her – and my hand sinks into the TV.

"W-What the hell…?!"

The moment my hand slips through I stumble forward – my head sinks into the TV. It's almost as though I'd dunked my head in water, but something far less natural feeling than that.

And then I hear yet another disembodied voice.

_Thou art I, and I am thou. Now, open thine eyes…! _

Before me I suddenly see a hand appearing out of some shimmering hole suspended in the air just ahead of me – everything else was completely black. The hand seems to be reaching out towards me, likely to pull me all the way in…!

I try to pull backward – the rest of my body's still outside the TV. There was no way in hell that I was going to get swallowed by it.

I lurch backward as hard as possible – my head pops out thankfully in my room before I lose my balance and smack my head against the table behind me.

I hear Nanako stirring in the hallway.

"Are you okay? I heard a bang."

"Did I wake you?" I ask as calmly as possible – the last thing that Nanako needed to see was the strange shimmering vortex on the TV set, so I couldn't let her inside. "Don't worry, everything's fine."

"Okay… Good night." With that she returns to her room.

I sigh.

So the Midnight Channel _was _real. But I had a feeling it had nothing to do with soul mates and involved something else entirely.

This is all so ironic.

This was just supposed to be another year long lesson in futility. A year just like any other.

But here I am, two days in, and already all hell is starting to break loose.

I had to admit it –

No matter what came about as a result of all of this –

This was going to be interesting.

* * *

_April 14__th__, 2011  
__For Now, My Name is Yu Narukami._

Never. I never expected anything quite like this.

They hadn't believed me when I told them that morning – that I'd gone into the TV. But the moment I showed off my new apparent ability to phase in and out of television sets at Junes' department store, things became a lot more complicated.

Falling completely through the TV – with two completely uninvolved bystanders in tow. Now _that _was something I don't think I could've anticipated in a thousand years.

I didn't know which was worse. That we were now trapped in a potentially completely sealed off dimension completely removed from our world, or that Yosuke wouldn't shut up about having to piss himself. But either way I had to stay completely calm while Yosuke and Chie went nuts.

Was I freaked out by all of this? Sure. But some dimension inside the TV was certainly a nice change of pace – I was actually a little excited, if I'm being brutally honest.

We'd landed on a platform in the middle of what seemed to be a large scale filming studio. Chie and Yosuke began having their panic attack while I tried to figure out where to go from here – this was the sort of thing you picked up when shuttling yourself everywhere all your life.

"Calm down." I eventually tell them, the incessant screaming getting on my nerves. "This isn't anything we can't deal with."

"Well aren't you all calm." Chie almost barks at me, her exasperation apparent.

"Where the hell _is _this?! I mean – we fell through the damn TV!" Yosuke shouts. Ah, right, Yosuke was the kind to crack under pressure really easily. Well, to a certain extent, so was I, but this wasn't all that much pressure.

Nope. Waking up in a place clearly not part of our world after falling into a TV with no way out is no cause for panic. Nope… Not at all…

I'd confess that I'm screaming on the inside right now – but that wouldn't be much of a confession. I'm always screaming on the inside, whether it is about something or about someone.

"I suggest we get moving. It would be best if we don't stay in one place for too long." I tell them.

"What gives you _that _idea?" Yosuke groans, his panic apparent.

"Who knows what's hiding around here?" I say in a rather creepy fashion before taking one of the catwalk pathways leading away from the studio floor. The two of them follow me almost completely wordlessly at that point.

Eventually we come to a black and red vortex – it reminded me of the patterns on that door in that dream I had. At this point I was pretty much certain that whatever that whole sequence was hadn't been a dream, but I had to focus on one thing at a time – right now we had to get out, or at least _look_ for a way out. And going into the red vortex seemed like the best idea. I almost had to drag Yosuke through by the hand, but all three of us made it through with no issue.

Inside was probably the most disturbing thing we'd seen that day – a room with walls splashed with blood and torn up posters, completely unpainted floor boards sticking up and at the dead center an old rusted chair positioned underneath a noose suspended from the ceiling.

"What the fuck…?" Yosuke at this point wants nothing more than to leave, but at least his bowels predicament helped take his mind off of it. Chie, on the other hand, seems a bit too spooked for her own good.

"W-What is something like _this_ doing here?! What on earth _is _this place?!"

"Let's not jump to any conclusions, alright?" I sigh, once again baffling my two companions.

"Dude, how the hell are you so calm right now?! What if someone _died _in this room?!" Yosuke shouts before jogging in place again. "Oh, fuck this, I can't hold it in anymore."

"W-Wait, what're you saying?" Yosuke's antics seem to be distracting Chie now as well.

Yosuke retreats to a nearby wall, facing away from us. We hear him unzip his pants.

"Wait, you're going to go _right here_?!" Chie seems less frightened and more embarrassed than anything else.

I take the opportunity to glance around the room – there certainly was something eerie about this place – but the more I looked the place over the stranger things seemed. I'd certainly never been here before, but something about this room felt rather cozy, almost like my own room at Ryotaro's house. But at the same time there was some malicious in the air that made being here simply feel _wrong_. Tuning out the bickering couple I look around some more – out through the window I can see more of that red vortex that seemed to pain the entirety of the sky – but more importantly, we seemed to be on some kind of upper level of a building. Beneath us was what seemed to be nothing more than the Shopping District – if they sky had been more normal looking I'd never be able to tell the two apart.

Eventually I notice some sort of blemish in the window – there was a small circular hole in the glass, awfully precise for a crack in the glass – for some reason I instinctively determine that this was a crack made by a bullet, although I had no grounds for knowing so.

It's possible that someone was shot in here, but none of the bloodstains seemed to suggest so – it didn't look like anyone could have been shot from outside given how high up this building seemed to be – but more importantly the bullet seemed to have been shot straight. Whoever had fired it must have been in the room. My eyes follow the trajectory the shot would have taken –

And I find myself turning around – and across the room on the far wall was what seemed to be my own reflection, although there was no mirror to be found. Chie and Yosuke continue their fight without apparently even noticing.

It's some sort of projection of myself – but with extremely harsh yellow eyes that seemed to pierce through me. He looks at me, rather confused for a moment before seemingly dawning on something.

It then smiles. "Let the games… begin..!" It speaks in my own voice, clapping its hands once before leaning back against the wall. Evidently I'm the only one who had heard any of it – the other two couldn't see it at all.

I blink – and the reflection is gone.

And in another moment the wall bursts open – and what seem to be monsters built of black ooze pour through the opening, one after another, eyes glowing red and bellowing much like some kind of animal.

Chie screams while Yosuke gets knocked off his feet in one strike before ever having the opportunity to react. The slimes seem to be surrounding me – not _us_, but _me _ – and in a matter of moments they turn into small floating balls with lecherous smiles. The moment they stick out their massive tongues I finally snap. There was only so much of this shit I could put up with before losing my composure. And this display, quite frankly, went far over the line all on its own.

"W-What the hell is…?!"

I find myself backing up against the window. There were six of them and only one of me – Chie at this point had collapsed to the floor and Yosuke was likely out cold. The floating balls close in on me – it would only be a matter of time before they swallow me up completely.

I suddenly find myself staring at nothing at all.

Then I hear a gunshot – and I feel a bullet whizz right past my head – right where that bullet hole in the window would be.

And then, with no rhyme or reason I hear whispers. Whispers in my own voice, mocking me. Whispers that with each uttered syllable cause me physical pain, as if each voice was a sharp dagger being plunged into me.

_I guess regular revenge is boring, though…  
__Let me see where your detective work takes you. It's always good for a laugh…  
__You're so persistent! Look at all that youthful vigor you've got...!  
_…  
…_Doesn't ring a bell, does it?  
Oh well.  
__I'm not sure why I figured things would change now…  
__Then let's start over._

And then suddenly I see a bright blue flame – a flame appears before me, and at its core was what seemed to be an equally as blue card –

_Thou art I. And I am thou. From the sea of thy soul, I cometh. _

And suddenly –

I feel as though this burning sensation –

This sensation is so natural. It's as though I've been born to touch this flame.

My hand wraps around the card –

_Now open thine eyes…!  
__I am Izanagi! The Original God!  
__And this is the path of blood we shall walk forever!_

And I feel it once more – that presence at my back. That feeling from that dream – the feeling of another person, standing behind me.

Mere moments ago I saw everything slip away into the darkness.

After all, I can't fight monsters.

But…

My eyes open – I'm back in that eerie room. The monsters are closing in on me.

That burning sensation is still there – and the presence at my back with the sword at its side is still very real.

And then I feel the instinct kick in.

I have to fight.

I have to fight these monsters.

And I'm the only on here that can do it.

…

Fuck everything.

I don't want this. I don't need this. I don't need some fucking voice in my head acting like it knows me. I don't need _any _of this. I don't even need to have friends, _or _family – I just need to fucking live. And these things were going to try and stop me.

"This is absurd." I say out loud. "This is all just so stupid. You expect me to fight monsters? This is some kind of joke, isn't it? I have enough trouble trying to fit in with normal people. But _fighting things that shouldn't exist_? There's no way in hell I could ever manage that…!"

Against my own will my voice becomes rather hysterical. But I was just so mad – mad at everything. Mad at this town for being so fucking unique, mad at Yosuke and Chie for making me show off my TV power, the fucking TV to for being so big and easy to fall through –

"This is bullshit…! All I wanted to do was sit out another year of the same old bullshit. But no – you just _have _to threaten my life – do any of _you _have any idea what moving to three different places and having to put up with three distinct kinds of bullshit in a year is like?!" I continue to scream at the monsters with no intent of stopping until I've said everything. "No, and you don't care – you're just out to make _your _bullshit the worst bullshit there is! You think you're entitled to your own brand of piss – You can all go to hell! I'd have been fine sleeping under a fucking bridge than living out here in this bullshit town that wants nothing more than to see me crack! Fuck you all! I'm done with all of this shit! I'm only human, goddammit!"

Then I start laughing hysterically. "Ahahahahah, that's right, I'm only human. There's only so much I'm willing to put up with before I blow a fuse. I can only take so much before I stop giving a shit. But I _assure_ you, standing at my back is someone who's _far _from human…!"

With that the figure – Izanagi – moves into action, his strangely crafted blade sliding along the flesh of the monsters almost gracefully as he cuts down each one with more precision than the last, leaving all sorts of electric discharge in his wake, never making so much as a sound.

But I know his kind all too well – he's just like me. He wants to scream, but he won't. Because if he does he'll be giving in to his anxiety. And by giving into his anxiety he'll be denying himself. He'll just keep cutting away until that which opposes him either backs off or falls dead.

For the longest time I've been fighting this society that tried to mold me. But I'm not unruly, but I'm not obnoxious. I'm not a rebel in any sense of the word – that's just how people expect to see me, and that's how people deny me and what I stand for.

People thing they can just express themselves however the hell they feel like – and all that comes of it is more shit to add to the pile. Everyone lives in the confines of the same bullshit society with the same bullshit reasons for living and the same bullshit ideals and goals. With all the places I've been I've met so many different people and they're all exactly the same.

Screw all of that. I can't live in such a world. Because no matter where I go and who I meet my plight goes unaccounted for. Because no one knows any world other than their own confined slice of ignorance. If I couldn't be different I'd die.

The world is boring unless you're different. I don't give a shit if no one remembers me because I'm not like them. I'm just going to keep being different.

But despite that the world always tries to weigh me down at every turn. For one reason or another I have to suppress myself time and time again. I have to fall in line. I'm forced to accept the mold even if only as a front. Because if I didn't I'd be denied my basic right to be different. My basic right to live removed from everything else.

And Izanagi reflected that feeling with every swing of his sword and every bolt of lightning he passed through the monsters.

I couldn't imagine being any more different than this.

_Thou art I and I am thou. _At first I didn't believe it.

But this being that was far from human – there is no difference between us. We are identical. Two sides of the same coin.

So why is now the time to fight? Why is now the time to finally let those feelings loose?

Because this place – Inaba was different. Everything that this town is composed of denies everything that I stand against. It is here that I am the strongest – that my ideology holds physical, tangible meaning in the form of this being that can kill these monsters.

My friends – Yosuke and Chie, and hell, even Yukiko.

They were all different in their own right.

But at the same time they were all subject to the same ridicule – the same scorn that I have had to hide from my entire life.

Yosuke's got his own share of problems, what with him having practically no friends other than Chie.

Chie is looked down upon by most of the other girls in our class.

Yukiko was sought after purely because of her looks – no one cares about any other part of her.

But they've all stayed here.

They've all put up with it.

They've all resisted it.

They're all braver than I am, in every sense, even though I was the one who walked into the jaws of death fearlessly.

But I'm the one – I'm the one with the power standing at my back.

The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

I have to protect them all, and with this power it was possible.

With this power –

But what _was _this power?

And then I knew –

This was – This power was _me_.

My other half.

Per-

So-

Na.


	13. Justification

_**2.3 Justification **_

_April 14__th__, 2011  
__For Now, My Name is Souji Seta._

The rest of that afternoon went by like a blur, just like everything else this past week has seemed to. We'd managed to get out of that room in once piece after Izanagi blew away everything, and then we ran into a bear that Chie thought was a dog and some other miscellaneous stuff happened – I really don't remember the details at all for some reason, but the bear let us out of the TV world with some weird portal exit that was a really tight squeeze through or something – it was all pretty much pointless, save for the bit where we got out of the TV world. All in all, no one died, Chie managed to save some face and Yosuke's bladder lived to fight another day, so it all pretty much worked out. That was all I really cared about when it came down to it.

That evening Ryotaro actually came home early – it was somewhat needless to say that Nanako was ecstatic, although we ended up spending most of the night watching the news – there was an interview with the woman who had found Yamano's body. I had pretty much reasoned out at this point that the woman in question was Saki Konishi, although it was more likely that I'd made that call based off of her appearance on the Midnight Channel.

Of course before we could manage any standard family talk Ryotaro passed out on the couch. And more or less right away Nanako was already poised at the ready to prepare his futon.

The look on her face was more than enough to propel me to action – so I proposed a little game that Nanako initially objected to but eventually decided to go through with. We would set up a camera near the couch and record Ryotaro – Nanako was suddenly on board once the idea of her father making strange faces popped in her head – we would watch it one day when he wasn't home, particularly when Nanako was feeling down. It was a fool proof plan – and Nanako got a laugh out of it, so bonus points for it right there.

Nanako went to bed by herself – I figured that we still weren't particularly close enough that I'd be tucking her in at night, but at least our little prank on her father was a good start. I head off to bed, keeping myself awake despite my exhaustion to watch the Midnight Channel –

Sure enough, Saki Konishi once again appeared.

There was only so much I could assume from the order of events here. Konishi had appeared once already – judging from Chie's initial report of the rumor, it would seem that Mayumi Yamano had appeared on the Midnight Channel before as well.

There was only one thing on my mind – would Saki Konishi turn up dead as well?

Only tomorrow would tell. And for the time being I was content with that.

* * *

_April 15__th__, 2011  
__For Now, My Name is Souji Seta._

How had it even come down to this?

I don't even remember exactly what happened up to this point – but the following morning we were treated to a second corpse, and so soon after the first one. As I ultimately had seen coming, Saki Konishi had been found dead in a condition almost identical to Yamano's state – once again the student body fell into chaos and Yosuke, who was doubtlessly the most scarred out of the lot of them seemed to have reached an all new low in terms of despair. The Midnight Channel was, without a doubt, a central factor to these murders – it would seem that whoever appeared on it wasn't your soul mate, but rather someone whose life was about to come to an abrupt end.

But no more than two hours later, he starts going on and on about the TV world – how maybe Konishi had been killed the same way and if we went back there we could somehow uncover something about the whole deal.

And this was Yosuke saying this – the same Yosuke that hadn't the slightest clue what any of this was about, and no more than twenty four hours after his near death experience.

He wanted to go back into the TV – to figure out what had happened to Konishi.

I knew I wasn't the only one who felt as though Yosuke was going overboard with this. But not once had he seemed particularly distressed about the whole thing – he was rather pensive the entire day, actually, until he'd come forward with his idea.

Chie had objected at first, but Yosuke incorporated her into his plan to get us back out in the event that the bear, Teddie, were somehow not around this time. But without much hesitation he wandered back into the TV – I of course followed him as to ensure he didn't end up dead himself – considering how I was pretty much the one responsible for this whole TV phase of his in the first place.

We returned to that stage and the bear was there again – we talked about a lot of random stuff and I said some things and pushed him around or something… I really don't remember the details even though it all happened no more than a few minutes ago –

Case in point, Teddie directed us to where he'd apparently smelled someone the night before – sure enough, he led us straight to an apparently almost exact replica of the Konishi Liquor Store, complete with the welcome mat, if Yosuke's memory is of any value.

And here we are – surrounded by Shadows inside the store, while Konishi's disembodied voice wails down at us from above.

_Hana-chan was a real pain in the ass.  
__His happy-go-lucky attitude? So damn annoying.  
__Hana-chan's better off jumping off a cliff.  
__Hana-chan can go kill himself.  
__He's an asshole, just like everyone else.  
__Fuck him, fuck his parents – fuck everyone he's ever talked to.  
__Fuck me, too. Fuck me for being nice to him.  
__I hate everything.  
__I hate everyone.  
__But I hate Hana-chan that much more._

I find the Shadows to be the least of my problems however. It's Yosuke's utter shock in the face of every one of those statements that proved to be the biggest problem. Teddie was worthless in battle but at the same time could do nothing to shield the practically vegetative Yosuke from the Shadows' blows, so the job was mine to keep his head quite literally in the game.

"Yosuke, can you at least _try _not to get your head bit off?!" I eventually grunt after having missed several openings courtesy of Yosuke's ineffectiveness.

"She really…Though all of those things?"

"Look, right now isn't the best time for this –" I dodge a rather swift strike – or tongue lick, whichever – from one of the opposing Shadows, following up with a quick strike from Izanagi, rendering the beast inert.

Eventually I manage to repel them all – the Shadows that I didn't kill eventually flee out the front door once I've whittled their numbers down – I'm already far too exhausted, but at least we were safe for the moment.

"You're gonna owe me for this one, you know." I sigh, plopping myself down on the floor next to a still completely baffled Yosuke.

"But… This isn't right… She wouldn't say stuff like this… But... These are her true feelings, right? But… But I thought…" Yosuke's expression is extremely pained and weak, but I really can't blame him all that much – if I were blindly in love with someone who showed up dead one morning and turned out to have secretly hated my guts all along the next I'd be pretty out of it too.

"Whatever, man." A low, amused voice suddenly rings out from somewhere behind us. "She wasn't even that hot." I rise from the floor immediately, my strength evidently having returned to me faster than I'd have expected. We turn on the spot, only to be face with –

"W-What the hell?!" Yosuke exclaims as he is faced with none other than himself, only a darker and far more twisted rendition of what would otherwise be his own reflection.

Well _this _was certainly familiar – It was like that apparition of myself that I'd seen yesterday. What stood leaning against the vending machines a few feet away from us was what appeared to be Yousuke, but clearly wasn't – his eyes were glowing yellow and a dark blue malicious aura visibly surrounded him. Upon his face was quite possibly the most malicious grin I'd ever seen – he was all too different from the Yosuke standing next to me for there to be any similarity between the two.

"W-Woah…!" Teddie shouts in confusion. "T-Two Yosuke's?!"

The fake looking Yosuke cackles. "Yeah, yeah, two Yosukes, big deal…. But it's more like one Yosuke and one… _Awesome_… Yosuke."

"Who the hell are you?" Yosuke goes straight into the questioning.

"Didn't I _just _get finished telling you?" His double responds with a sigh. His eyes narrow – clearly he hates Yosuke to the core, but I couldn't figure out why. It wasn't as though Yosuke was the one copying _him,_ it was the other way around – but then again…

"I don't know who the fuck you are, but what gives you the right to talk shit about Saki-senpai with my face?!" Yosuke shouts right back.

"Yep, I'm a real pain in the ass, aren't I? I'm a worthless piece of shit without a sensitive bone in my body, huh?" The doppelganger laughs. "But you know what the best part about all of this is…? It's that _I'm _the one who thinks everything's a pain in the ass."

I can hear it in his laughter – some deep, secondary voice overlapping with his own voice. Clearly this Yosuke wasn't human, not by any stretch of the mind. So he must have been a Shadow – a Shadow that had taken on Yosuke's appearance.

"I don't know who the hell you are, but… I wouldn't think that way…!" Yosuke's anger shorts out several times in response to what the Shadow had said – there must have been some truth to it, at least from a certain angle.

The Shadow laughs. "Yeah, right. Just how long are you going to keep deluding yourself…? Screw the shopping district, and Junes too! You're sick of everything, especially of living out here in the sticks!"

"W-What're you saying? That's not true, I-"

But the Shadow cuts him off. "You put on a good show of being carefree and happy-go-lucky because you're just so damn terrified of being alone. The more the merrier, right? You've gotta be surrounded by people to block out the pain of isolation. And what's this about checking out this world for Saki-senpai's sake? I know the real reason why you came snooping…"

With each insult and with each accusation the Shadow makes Yosuke becomes more and more visibly distressed to the point where I can tell just from being a few feet away from him that he's dangerously close to breaking entirely. There wasn't much I could do if that happened – Yosuke would be even more of a liability than he was already if he was unable to run away on top of everything else.

Naturally the Shadow notices and leers at him with delight. "Why so panicked. I thought I was just spouting bullshit…Or…O-Or maybe… maybe I _do _know everything you're thinking. Why's that I wonder?" He tilts his head, pretending to be mulling it over. "…Ah, I know. It's because… _I _am _you_!"

Yosuke cringes at that – the Shadow has already won. Now it was only a matter of time before –

"You just came because you thought it sounded like a good time! What else is there to do out in this shithole? A world inside the TV – now _that's _exciting. You didn't have a _single other reason _for wanting to come here, did you?!"

Yosuke's voice is far more distressed now than it had been only moments ago. "That's not true…! That's a load of bullshit!"

"You're just trying to act like a big-shot… If it all went well, hey, maybe you could even be a hero! And that senpai you were so sweet on?" His eyes narrow again, his smile truly malicious in every way. "Her death was the _perfect _excuse."

Yosuke starts to shake his head, almost hysterically, once again screaming at the Shadow. "That's not true! What are you?! _Who _are you?!"

The Shadow laughs again, his victory clearly apparent. "I already told ya. I'm you… Your Shadow. There's nothing I don't know about you."

It all made sense – the apparition of myself. The words he'd spoken – how he considered everything up to that moment to be the start of some big game. His thoughts reflected mine to a serious degree – the moment I learned of my power to sink into the TV I felt the same sort of excitement that a spectator would feel at a game. It was a twisted way of seeing things, but it was without a doubt my way of thinking. Chopping down these Shadows – it was nothing but a sport for me. Something I enjoyed far more than I ever should have.

That apparition that had spoken those words – _let the games begin _– that had been a Shadow not built with me in mind, but built directly from me. It had been my Shadow, much like this Yosuke was Yosuke's Shadow. But there was a clear difference between the two of them – my Shadow hadn't been hostile. He hadn't attacked me at all – he'd disappeared all on his own.

It then dawns on me – why Yosuke's Shadow was clearly hostile. I didn't deny my Shadow – but Yosuke was denying his, and so this was the result.

"Yosuke, wait –" By the time I realize what is about to happen it's already too late.

"Screw that!" Yosuke screams. "I don't know you! You can't be me! You're nothing like me!"

With that the entire room shakes from the foundation – and the Shadow Yosuke cackles.

"Ah, that's right…! Say it again…!"

"You're not me! There's no way you could ever be me!"

"That's right…! _That's right! I'm me now!_ I'm not you anymore, see?!" The aura surrounding him grows in size until it seems to fill the entire room, obscuring the Shadow from my vision.

And suddenly an even darker haze spews from where the Shadow had been standing –

And in a matter of moments roaring wind suddenly fills the small liquor store as the dark haze grows larger and larger – and in all of an instant the haze fades away and standing before us is what appears to be a massive frog like creature with the upper half of a completely featureless and pitch black human body wearing what appeared to be a super-hero stylized cape around its neck and ninja-stars for eyes.

It was one of the most bizarre things I'd ever seen in my life – but it was clearly a threat, and I had to stop it.

"I am a shadow, the true self…" The beast bellows in Yosuke's voice. "I'll crush _everything _that bores me."

With that I leap towards him, my golf club at the ready with Izanagi behind me and ready to strike at a moment's notice.

I jab the beast with the golf club – surprisingly enough it almost sinks through the monster's skin – it seemed there were some disadvantages to being a massive toad monster after all. I back away as Izanagi slices its cartoonish left arm in half, issuing a scream from the monster.

"…Starting with _you_…!" It then lunges towards me – I manage to back away in time, somehow bypassing the beasts attack range. It would seem that despite its size its range was significantly limited – but I'd wager that if I let myself get hit it would be curtains for me rather quickly.

I take a running leap, this time aiming to strike the monster's head – but I purposely cut myself short so that the Shadow's functioning right arm would aim to block down low – of course Izanagi keeps heading straight, attempting to run his blade through the creature's face – and succeeds. The Shadows head explodes, black slime which I assumed equated to blood spraying everywhere. The Shadow screams and falls backward onto its lower frog half, much like a wilted flower.

There was no real basis for me to assume this, but I feel as though the Shadow should, like, explode or something upon defeat, although that was likely a result of my obsession with video games.

But after at least a full ten seconds go by, something just feels off. Something should be happening. The frog half seems perfectly fine despite how the upper half has been completely pulverized –

But then I hear Yosuke now on the floor and probably only half conscious, weakly muttering to himself.

"He's not me… There's no way he can be me… He's nothing like me…!" His mantra repeats long enough for me to suddenly clue in –

But a split second before the upper half of the Shadow comes alive again, its head and left arm regenerated and completely unharmed, decking me in the face with its massive gloved hand.

I'm sent flying.

"This is bullshit." I mutter to myself. Before I know it Teddie wanders over to me to see if I was alright, but I ignore him completely.

I run off after the Shadow again, Izanagi striking the creature with lightning – the Shadow bellows and falls over, the electric shock racking its body. It would seem it was naturally weak to Izanagi's magic – but it had recovered ever so quickly from the wounds we'd inflicted on it only a short few moments ago. I felt as though it wasn't going to matter.

At some point I realize that it's not attacking me – perhaps I _was _doing so residual damage to it. Izanagi weaves back and forth with a mixture of his attacks pelting the Shadow almost in a steady rhythm. I attempt to keep my own pace going, but ultimately all I was really doing was assisting Izanagi.

Eventually Teddie shrieks. "Sensei, you have to defend yourself!"

I completely ignore him, though – his voice was getting on my nerves rather quickly.

I make another charge forward, at this point attacking the beast practically off of reflex.

And in an instant a massive burst of wind, so strong that it took on a visible green form, shoots out from the mouth of the frog half, spiraling head on in my direction –

I could feel the strength of the gust even before it was anywhere near me – it was less like actual wind and more like the most pressurized gas there was – enough to pulverize my entire body down to the bones in an instant. It was a malicious sort of wind – it carried the same sort of darkness in it that I'd felt from the Shadow's aura earlier and was likely just as deadly. And at this range I was likely going to be completely blown away by it.

But Izanagi shields me from the strike – I feel a sharp pain overcome every nerve in my body. But it dissipates in all of a moment – I'm left drained by it, as though I'd been cut by a thousand small knives and left completely unscathed but no less mentally strained, but at any rate I'm still alive.

Izanagi suddenly speaks to me.

_I know he's annoying as all fuck, but the bear sometimes says some useful shit. You better know I'm not gonna pull a crazy stunt like that again. _

_All we're doing is wasting our breath. That cunt is gonna keep getting back up no matter what we do. _

He certainly had a point – despite what we'd done the Shadow had shown no signs of even slight weakness - he was still about as well prepared to kill us as he'd been when this started.

"What do _you _think we should do, then?"

_Are you a dumbass or something? We both know what you've got to do to win this. _

"What makes you say that?" I only realize how dumb a question that was a few moments after I had asked it.

_Because I'm you, shithead. _He responds bluntly.

"…Duly noted."

_I'll give you a hint. That sad sack of shit pissing himself on the floor over there made him, right? _

"And if this guy's anything like the Shadow from before, if Yosuke can accept him, then-"

_There we go. You don't have that above average in academics for nothing after all. Now go get 'em._

This time the beast lunges towards me to take advantage of my guard being completely down. I manage to fend it off with the golf club – but it became fairly obvious that the golf club was a matter of moments away from snapping completely.

"Hey, Yosuke…!" I call out to him, trying to maintain my stance but struggling to do so. "You know, if you're going to shrivel up and die, you might as well go full fetal with it."

Yosuke seems to respond to my words. He shifts slightly, but very slightly at that.

All I had to do was get him to confess. To give in to this side of himself that he hated so desperately.

There was only one way I could see myself doing that.

Sure, I'd be saving his life when I did it, but at the same time I suppose it would be the same as coming to terms with everything that's gone on all at once, in the presence of someone else.

The last time this happened was not even that long ago – the last time someone was allowed to bear witness to 'me' was…

"You know, I was kinda bored and sick of this place when I got here too. Not because it was the country or anything, but… I haven't exactly told anyone but Yukiko about this before, but I've been doing this whole transferring thing for awhile now."

Yosuke lets out a strangely astounded 'huh?' noise before I deem it right to continue.

"Everywhere I go I meet new people. It doesn't matter where it is, but there will always be new people you'll end up running into. And more often than not, unless you get incredibly lucky, there's nothing interesting or even redeemable about any of them. It doesn't matter if you're in the countryside or on the fucking moon – it's the same bullshit everywhere you go. I taught myself to suppress it all and just eat up how pointless everyone seems to be… Then I ended up here. I've been here for how long? Four days? And here I am fighting a half-toad half-man monster with a golf club in the middle of a liquor store." I pause briefly to organize my thoughts. "But honestly, I wouldn't care if it stopped there. No – I met you, Chie, and I even ran into Yukiko again. I saw how all of you felt the same thing, even if you all had to hide it like I did. But you tried to keep going one way because you didn't know any other way to live – you tried to live the way everyone wanted you to even if you had difficulties… You're all a hell of a lot braver than I'd ever be – that's why I haven't run away with my tail between my legs, get it? I've got to make up for what I don't have."

Yosuke seems a tad bit speechless.

"Ultimately we're all just like you. Everyone living in this town is the exact same way – feels the exact same way. We all want to live a certain way, and in the end we probably won't ever be able to live the way we want to. That's why you have to stop denying him – he's the best part of you."

"…The best part of me…? The part of me that hates everything…?" Yosuke chuckles. "What the hell are you even saying?"

I just had to push a little harder – I was almost there. But what else could I possibly say to him? In my moment of uncertainty the Shadow strikes again, this time managing to split my scalp open with a much smaller burst of wind – my head was bleeding, not quite as profusely as I expected, but chances were that if I couldn't get Yosuke out of his rut in a few minutes I'd be kibble the next time one of those hit me.

"The only thing you 'hate' is the way you're living. Your Shadow said it himself – you have to be surrounded by people to block out the isolation. The isolation that comes from cutting yourself off from everyone else. I thought I could control that isolation and use it to my advantage, but I'm a bit of an idiot – it never works that way. People can't live alone, no matter who they are or who they believe they are. But you're not alone – you've never been alone, because everyone feels the exact same way."

Yosuke doesn't initially respond and the Shadow continues to attack me. In a few moments Izanagi shocks the beast again – but this time it seems to stay down. Likely its resolve was weakening now that Yosuke's was getting stronger.

Izanagi strikes it again – and this time the entire body, both the human and frog halves, disintegrates, leaving behind the Yosuke look-alike underneath and nothing else.

The Shadow still charges towards me despite having lost most of his combat ability – he seems incredibly weak and dreary, but he still charges at me with nothing more than his fists.

"Alright, just stop! For fuck's sake, just cut the crap for one second, would you?!" The human Yosuke suddenly calls out – he's off the floor now and walking towards us, visibly exhausted but in much better shape than he'd been moments ago.

"The fuck do _you _want?" The Shadow snarls at him – but Yosuke's apparently had enough of him and decks him in the face. The Shadow is sent off his feet and crashes into the floor.

"You've said _more _than enough shit to make your point… Like it or not, he's right – you're me, and I'm you…" Yosuke seems hesitant, but continues regardless. "When you come down to it, all of this is me – I _was_ afraid of being alone. I _was_ afraid of the isolation. So I tried to be who I had no business wanting to be and… well, I guess I _do _kinda hate everything." He smiles somewhat wryly. "We've all got our own dreams – we've all got ideal places we'd love to live in. But those places just don't exist – and we're stuck down on earth our whole lives… But it's possible to have just a small piece of that… That's what I never really got – all I had to do was start giving a shit. That was all I had to do. Then I'd see it in Chie, in Yukiko – I'd have seen it in you, too… Well, me, I mean. You get the idea."

His Shadow stands there, emotionlessly, speaking naught but a single word.

After a few seconds go by, he nods his head –

And then I see the same blue flame engulf Yosuke and his Shadow – and a few feet above them both appears not the demonic form the Shadow had taken, but something entirely different in every aspect aside from perhaps the color scheme – it was a Persona. Yosuke's Persona.

And in an instant it all disappears, and Yosuke is all that's left – his Shadow has returned to him, much like mine had returned to me.

He collapses to the floor – I'm at his side in all of an instant while Teddie eventually makes his way over.

"Shit, _you're _the one who took the beating…" Yosuke groans. "So why the hell am _I _the one who's so damn tired?"

"You're the one who had the traumatic episode. I'm just the guy who cleaned up the discharge… Or something along those lines."

"…Well, I don't see myself making sense of that any time soon, so let's get out of here."

I help Yosuke to his feet and Teddie leads us out of the liquor store and back to the studio.

"Chie's gonna be pissed, isn't she?" Yosuke eventually groans on our way back.

"Ah, right. I forgot about her, believe it or not."

He laughs slightly. "Weren't you the one that was worried about her?"

"I only said what you were thinking."

"…You're really dead set on pairing me off with her, aren't you?"

"Nah. You're already buying her whatever she wants. I'm not sure if I could even set it up any better than that."

Yosuke laughs a little more at that. "I guess you're right… Man, I'm a train wreck just waiting to happen." After a few moments of silence he continues. "You know… We make a pretty good team, don't we? Well, I mean factoring out the whole 'me rolling around on the floor' thing. You kicked his ass and I talked him out of his rut."

"You mean _I _talked _you _out of _your _rut and you basically just said 'yeah, you're right' and called it a day."

"Hey, give me a little more credit. I… Well, I guess I didn't do much else, did I?"

"…Well, at least you'll be able to pull your own weight from now on."

"Pull my own weight, eh…?"

"What, you thought we were going to stop coming here after this?"

All of this had led me to quite a few conclusions – Yosuke's Shadow had turned on him when he'd rejected it. And ultimately everyone was the same as Yosuke in the sense that everyone has something to hide. If Konishi and Yamano were both in this world, then the chances their Shadows manifested are about as high as could be. Teddie already mentioned how the fog thickens at times corresponding to foggy nights in our world – it all added up. They had been attacked and killed by their own Shadows, only because no one had saved them.

I felt as though this sort of thing was unforgivable. Someone with power identical to my own was throwing people into this world and forcing them to either come to terms with themselves or die. Did they deserve scorn for their ineptitude? Perhaps. Perhaps their uselessness was their own fault – but maybe it wasn't. Ultimately everyone is different, no matter how small that difference is – that was something I never really accepted until I arrived in this town. Everyone lives for different reasons, even if everyone has the same outward appearance. People can be altered by the ideas of other people at the drop of a hat, and in some cases maybe even be forced to adapt.

Until now I never really valued anyone but myself. But the moment I gained this power everything was different. Because I could see people for who they were and not for what they appeared to be.

I'd been given a small glimpse of the truth – the truth that makes up our human race. And it was my duty to protect that truth with this power.

There is no such thing as objectivity, one might believe. But that simply isn't the truth.

There is one objective truth – we are all human. We are all individuals that are all fundamentally different even if we all seem to be identical.

Our world is filled with countless people that have no purpose. People that pretend like their lives have meaning when in fact they don't. That much has always been true. But it never really occurred to me what that pretending really meant – it meant that everyone knew, deep down, that their lives had no meaning, and the moment they would accept that their lives would be over.

All of us ultimately live incorrectly by everyone else's standards. We are all different in such a slight way, even if only in physical appearance, and that alone makes our society the shithole it is.

But death is not the solution. Death will never be the solution. Death was denial – denial of the most fundamental sort. The sort of thing that I could never allow, even if it was for people I didn't even know.

That's why I had to put an end to this before it went any further.

"Konishi-senpai was definitely here before she died," I continue. "I'd wager that room with the noose was where Mayumi Yamano had been before _she _died. And chances are things aren't going to stop there."

"What, you're saying you want to –"

"We're going to wait until someone else ends up in here – then we're going to save them. We're going to stop anyone else from getting killed. Sounds like a plan?"

Yosuke smiles in response. "Sounds like a plan, partner."

With that we continue down the path after Teddie, his arm slung around my shoulder – Yosuke had seen it the way I had. He knew Konishi had been put through what he'd gone through. And I could see in his eyes that he was more than willing to prevent what had almost happened to him from happening to anyone else.

So everything was now set in motion. The game had begun but at the same time had ended – because this simply wasn't a game anymore.

And for the first time, perhaps in my entire life, I came to wonder –

_Do I have enough time?_

_Do I have enough time to resolve this?_

* * *

_April 16__th__, 2011  
__For Now, My Name is Souji Seta._

The following day was rather uneventful as a whole. There wasn't really that much going on in school as the whole 'forget about what's going on around us' mode was in full effect today. The students needed a break from the whole murder thing and there wasn't going to be another opportunity for respite in awhile if things kept going the way things were going – but if Yosuke and I could stop this before it got out of hand maybe things could gradually return to normal. Death _is _the one thing people can have every right in the world to fear, after all.

Yosuke mostly saw to his usual behavior today, once again apologizing to Chie for the whole mess yesterday – she wasn't the happiest person in the world when we eventually emerged from the TV, but at any rate she was extremely relieved. Yosuke offered to treat her to steak, again, but at any rate she was more concerned about how distant Yukiko was evidently being – I still hadn't said a word to her since the first day of school, although the more involved I got in this whole TV mess the less I'd want to talk to her at all anyhow – she'd find out about it one way or another. That much was certain.

There wasn't much of note, thankfully enough – but it _did _start raining that afternoon, and my gut told me to watch the Midnight Channel that evening. Fortunately enough for me Yosuke was serious enough about things that I didn't really have to go to any lengths to seriously remind him about it – Chie was still tagging along with us in that regard for what it was worth, despite having little to no clue about what the world inside the TV really was about. Although if Yosuke had obtained a Persona Chie realistically could find herself with one as well – that, of course, depends on how much she's hiding, if Yosuke's incident was any frame for reference. On another fairly similar note there seemed to have been a bit of a power struggle going on between the two at lunch – they got into a fairly usual and uninteresting nonsensical argument as always, but something told me it started up because Chie had gotten into a TV diving mood and Yosuke felt the need to turn her down. There wasn't much I could do about her – the only person who I felt could have any significant influence on her actions would be Yukiko.

And speaking of, guess who I ran into on my way home.

That weird girl from the train station? Uh, no. Some guy with a long nose that I curiously haven't brought up at all yet even though you say I should have? What are you on? I don't even know anyone like that.

…Yukiko. I ran into Yukiko. If you didn't figure that out I suggest you see a psychiatrist. With a few hundred bucks in your pocket because you're probably going to need them.

She was sitting on a bench along the Samegawa Floodplain, holding an umbrella and staring off into space – it would've made more sense for her to sit under the awning a little further down the road, especially considering she was wearing a fairly expensive looking black kimono, but then again Yukiko wasn't exactly the smartest in the bunch when it came to common sense, at least as far as I could remember.

Ok, so all I have to do is keep walking as casually as possible. Just keep going, head straight, maybe even lazily looking off to the side or something, just _don't make eye contact_.

Sure enough, the moment I get close enough to her that she'd notice someone walking in front of her she recognizes me instantly. It didn't help that I was too distracted with avoiding her that I had to constantly glance in her direct to make sure she wasn't looking.

Fuck it. I'll talk to her.

I sit down next to her wordlessly – she doesn't really have much of anything to say right off the bat, not that I really expected her to have anything of note to say no more than three days after our bout, particularly because Chie had been there and had seen the whole thing.

Eventually she opens her mouth. "I'm sorry about the other day. I know it's probably stressful as it always is, so it's alright if you had a bad day or two." And right away with the apology. Not a bit different – not at all. But based on Chie's reaction to her display the other day, it was definitely possible she'd learned to control it more effectively.

"It's not a big deal." I respond rather typically. "You scared the crap out of Chie, though."

She groans. "That's right… _Chie _was there…"

"Does she not know or something?"

She looks at me somewhat confused. "Know about what?"

"That you lose your temper all the time?"

She glares at me, although not very intently. "I do _not _lose my temper all the time…" She suddenly breaks her gaze and looks away in a sudden instance of though. "Although it's true that she didn't really know me all that well back when I was that young, I guess. Maybe she _didn't _know I lose my temper all the ti…" She suddenly gasps. "Look what you've got me saying…!"

"The sooner you come to terms with it, the sooner you can make a full recovery… Or something along those lines." I respond rather flatly.

"And there you go with another strange one liner that doesn't make any sense… Well, at least you haven't changed all that much." She smiles softly, staring off into the distance again. "I really wish I'd told you where I actually lived. It would've made things go a lot more smoothly." She was likely talking about how sudden our reunion was.

"Yeah, it would've helped. I'd have hitch-hiked to Hokkaido if I knew. Found some cute blonde and started a fishing business or something."

She snorts, but doesn't really respond to that directly. "Is black hair _really _that much of a turn-off?"

"Didn't we go over this already?"

"We probably did. I don't remember, though." She says with some slight laughter. "I take it you're still in the same situation? I really should've asked you the other day, but..."

"Yeah, same old same old. Still hoping for one of them to drop dead between trips, still no luck."

"You really shouldn't talk like that about your parents. It's not like they _want _to make you wander the country like a nomad."

"Well, you're not wrong about that." It was just that they wanted nothing to do with me period.

She knew that was what I'd been implying. "Well, at least you're not the only one with problems around here."

"I'd noticed. Chie wants to sleep with you so badly she's practically signaling you with neon lights."

She didn't like that joke – not one bit. "W-What're you saying something like that for?! Chie's not like that!" She almost starts glaring daggers at me again. Of course she failed to deny that _she _went that way, although that was ground I couldn't cross without stepping on a landmine.

"Eh, you've probably got a point. It's clear she's more into Yosuke anyway. Better luck next time."

She rolls her eyes at that. "What makes you think she's not interested in _you_?"

"If she was interested in me she would've slept with me already."

"Hah, like you're anywhere near that good."

"How would you know? I've been with enough girls that –"

"Liar. You're still as much of a virgin as you were when we were kids."

"…You know, could we just drop this?"

"You're the one who made the remark." She shrugs her shoulders.

"It was a joke. Probably the best one I could come up with in context, too."

"Say whatever you'd like."

I try to think of some witty response, but I suddenly find myself wanting to smack myself across the face – the first victim in the murder case supposedly stayed at her inn. And here I was with an opportunity that I probably wouldn't have for awhile to ask her about it. "…But anyway, what's the whole deal with Mayumi Yamano?"

Yukiko's somewhat amused demeanor fades almost the moment I'd said that name. "What about her?" She says with a bit of a sigh.

"I take it she _was _staying at the inn the night she died?"

"Yeah, although we still don't know how she even got out of the building."

"I'm kind of curious. Didn't she have any sort of protection at all? I mean, the media can get really outrageous and as far as my uncle's said people who get pretty much forced out of their houses get cop protection."

"There were officers here that night. Several. I'm not sure how someone got past them – I think at least one or two even stayed almost till dawn."

"You were up that long?"

"We were busy. We had to keep the media out of the inn while making sure our customers weren't caught in the chaos. I don't think I got _any _sleep that night, to tell you the truth…"

Despite feeling sorry for her I fall silent for a few moments to mull things over. So on the topic of Mayumi Yamano, it would seem that she _was _well guarded for a grand majority of the evening. Knowing the media and knowing how out of the way Inaba is there was no way they could really arrange for them to leave under any particularly valid grounds unless they were being loud or unruly, which seemingly wasn't the case. Having long term protection was certainly the way to go.

In conclusion, Yamano was well protected from the media. But it would seem protecting her from a serial murderer was out of the question.

I couldn't help but wonder if Adachi was involved. I'd feel sorry for him, although Ryotaro's ramblings didn't suggest that anyone at the office was taking blame for what had happened.

Now, I really can't say for certain, but given how we've come to enter the TV I can generally assume that Yamano entered the same way – willingly I couldn't say, but given how there was more than one victim and the second was closely related to the first, Yamano's death couldn't have been any accident. For the time being I'm going to arbitrarily assume she was thrown in unwillingly, as difficult as that would seem.

Of course the point that actually mattered was how much time had passed between the death and Konishi's discovery of the body. As far as we knew people could end up dead a few seconds after they were tossed in as long as the fog was heavy enough. But all in all I would've figured that it would take at least a few hours at the least. It certainly couldn't have been ten minutes before as most of the fog had already cleared by then – it made the most sense for these sorts of things to happen later in the evening when the fog was the thickest, which would likely be somewhere in the midnight to three A.M. range. The chances of the killer getting to her while the cops were on duty seemed very slim despite this. Of course that assumed that one of them hadn't been the killer in the first place.

"…Come to think of it, do you know who stayed the night?"

"Out of the officers…? No, I don't think so. Your uncle might've been there earlier in the night, but I don't really remember who spent the whole evening." A lot of good that did me. Well, at any rate, I at least knew my uncle likely wasn't involved.

Despite having considered it myself I found myself almost laughing at the thought of Ryotaro being a cold blooded killer. That made about as much sense as _Adachi _being a cold blooded killer. Really, the thoughts that go through my head are about as unfiltered as can be.

After thinking it over for a few more seconds, I finally realize that there wasn't much point at all in trying to mull things over just from that. Yukiko didn't really know any of the major details to begin with and I sure as hell wasn't going to go asking around her inn. She'd find out no matter what and as I've already made apparent she's the last person who anyone would want involved in this sort of thing.

After a few more moments of silence she stands, presumably to leave. She straightens her kimono with her free hand before silently heading down the road towards the bus stop. After a few paces she pauses briefly.

"…I could've dyed it, you know." She speaks rather abruptly.

"…Dye what?" I ask, genuinely completely unaware of what she was getting at.

"My hair." With that she moves down the road at a far brisker pace as I feel the need to slap myself across the face for the second time that day.

"Gah… Why did I say something like that?" I groan to myself as I eventually stand up and head down the road in the opposite direction.

My stupidity aside, Yukiko definitely seemed worn out. She was likely being forced to handle more of the inn's problems than she was accustomed to, even though Chie's banter about how skilled she was seemed to suggest that she could handle just about anything. Either Chie was covering for her, or between the two of us I was the one who actually knew more about Yukiko. I was silently praying that wasn't the case, especially considering how my reappearance in her life meant virtually nothing but trouble for her – the moment things begin to take the turn that they did back then, I'll have to cut all ties with her. That was at least the plan, as much of a work-in-progress as it was.

Yukiko seemed to have wanted to draw attention as far away from that subject as possible, but in retrospect it was somewhat obvious that she was having a hard time with it. But even so she seemed to compose herself about as well as one could imagine, so it would seem that she wasn't as much of an emotional train wreck as she'd been in the past. It would seem the years were kind to her after all, although I doubt that she needs me to tell her that.

There wasn't much else to that day – I don't really remember what else I did on my way home, but none of it was of any particular amount of consequence. There was only about as much going on in Inaba today as there was any other day of the week – the suspense over Konishi's sudden murder was slowly starting to dissipate – if the girl had more friends it would've been a hell of a lot worse, but at least to that extent fewer people would be on edge and… well, I wasn't really sure how, but I felt that the more relaxed everyone around me was, the easier it would be for me to solve this mystery. From what standpoint I wasn't really sure, but it at least let me know that Yukiko wouldn't start suspecting anything odd. At least until Chie eventually blabbed, which in itself was a possibility that I wanted to spend the least amount of time mulling over as possible.

That evening the news was on as usual. Nanako didn't seem to care all that much, whereas I found myself more intently focused on it than I'd probably ever been before – according to the evening forecast it was going to be foggy tonight, so checking the Midnight Channel later that night was even more of a no-brainer than it was before. But what was rather peculiar was how the media seemed to have moved on from the more gruesome details of the Inaba incident and went on for awhile talking about the Amagi Inn. It would seem that someone high up on the inn's staff felt that all of this talk about murders was a good excuse for the inn to invest in some shamelessly overblown product placement – Yukiko was even shown, wearing that same kimono, so it must have been recorded earlier today, likely right after she came home from the floodplain. She seemed to have been out of the loop given how the clearly Amagi-paid reporter weirded her out more than anything else – I felt sorry for her, but there was no sense in mulling over her problems right now. My current batch of issues was far more important, at least for the time being.

Of course the moment I came to that conclusion was the moment I set myself up as the butt of someone's really bad joke.

That evening the Midnight Channel came on – I'd only seen that kimono twice today. Without a doubt, I knew the person on the screen was Yukiko.

"Fuck," I muttered as casually as possible.

Despite it all, none of this TV stuff was really all that complicated. Or at any rate, not anywhere near as complicated as it was about to become.

I'd already seen what Yosuke's Shadow was like. There was no reason why Yukiko wouldn't have a Shadow that was just as unruly.

Now Yosuke's problems were fairly one dimensional, at least from a certain point of view.

But Yukiko's mind was something that no one in their right mind would ever try to delve into. Whatever Yosuke thought the pinnacle of terror was, for Yukiko it was something far more extreme. No matter how dark the depths one could sink into, the depths for Yukiko would be that much darker. Yosuke had been forced to bear his heart for someone that was essentially a complete stranger, but it had been under the least tenuous of circumstances.

But Yukiko's heart had already been laid bare once before. She'd already subjected someone else to the truth in her heart, but she was forced to bottle it back up. There was no doubt in my mind that if it happened again she wouldn't be able to seal up the gaping hole a second time. But before too long it was going to be spread open for all to see, but this time pried open by force.

I knew whay my plan was - to wait until someone else suddenly went missing and then, much like with Yosuke, save them from themselves. But this was an entirely different matter - I had to stop this before it started. No matter what, Yukiko could not be kidnapped.

And if she was –

* * *

_April 17__th__, 2011  
__For Now, My Name is Souji Seta._

Today was only such a blur because it was a carbon copy of yesterday – but Chie's flash flood warning about Yukiko's sudden unresponsiveness didn't slip past me at all this time. Eventually she managed to get her on the phone and all was well, but in all honesty it meant virtually nothing in the long run. The class was surprisingly on the ball about the news coverage of the inn and finally had something more positive to talk about – the talk about Yukiko was never more prominent especially considering how she'd been on TV the previous evening, but all the while I felt like raising my voice and just telling off all of them – Yukiko's life was in danger. Not that any of them would've known that or anything.

Yosuke seemed to have come to the same conclusion that I did. When Chie left the room to go buy herself lunch we had a long talk over what we should do. We both planned to head straight to the inn after school to essentially stake the place out until the coast at least seemed clear, but for some reason that plan never occurred – no, rather it seemed like someone was dead set on completely killing our chances of ever getting to the Amagi Inn in the first place – Yosuke's father essentially forced him to head straight to the store right after class due to some emergency involving a part timer or something. It wasn't as though he could suddenly shirk his responsibility with 'I have to save my friend's life' as an excuse despite how legitimate it was.

I was planning on heading straight to the Inn myself, but much to my amazement but at the same time much to my dismay Ryotaro actually dragged me home from school himself – he'd told me something had happened in the shopping district. He didn't elaborate, but he told me there would be enough about it on the news and he wanted me home with Nanako – normally I'd be glad that he was attempting to be a functional father but the circumstances here were a bit too over-the-top for that.

Ultimately I ended up sitting around the house essentially doing nothing but watching the news with Nanako – apparently there had been a bomb threat earlier in the day that apparently had some legitimacy to it – the supposed bomber evidently had a live hostage and the police were negotiating with him live on television for all to see. There wasn't a doubt in my mind that this was some sort of delusional copycat crime in light of the ongoing investigation – it then turned out that the supposed bomber was Saki Konishi's father, likely acting out of grief, and if the contents of that liquor store in the TV were anything to go by I doubted the legitimacy of the bomb threat in the first place.

I was ultimately stuck – I couldn't just take off and leave Nanako alone. The fact that Ryotaro was a police officer and probably even the fact that I'd spoken to Konishi almost right before she died was indicative enough that if there was anything more to this that Nanako wouldn't exactly be off the radar.

But that evening I finally find myself with some time alone and away from everything else, long after that situation resolved. I had acquired Yukiko's phone number, or at least her inn's private line from Chie earlier in the day just in case something like this had happened. I take the opportunity to call the number – I'd be damned if I didn't at least try to do this. The chances of me getting through were slim enough as Yukiko essentially had no other friends but Chie as far as the staff at the inn were concerned and I couldn't exactly explain why I was calling her – well, I could have, but you get the idea. I just had to hope that Yukiko was the one that picked up the phone.

The phone rings several times, and before too long someone eventually picks up.

"_This is Kuroda from the Amagi Inn. May I ask who is calling?"_ An older woman answers the phone. My heart immediately sinks. I swallow briefly before coming up with an introduction.

"Ah, yes, this is Souji Seta, I'm a friend of Yukiko's from school… I was wondering if I could speak to her, if she isn't busy." It then occurs to me that if I was friendly enough with Yukiko then I would have her cell phone number at this point –

"_Ah, I see. I'll connect you to her momentarily." _The woman replies. It then occurs to me that Chie had to call Yukiko through her Inn's phone earlier today because she wasn't answering her cell phone. I sigh with relief – it would seem that I'd be able to get around having to explain myself after all.

Before too long I hear a rather weary Yukiko pick up another receiver. _"Hello?"_

"It's me." I say flatly. Off to a great start already, aren't we?

"_Oh, right. I didn't give you my number. I should've gotten around to that… Oh well."_

"You weren't answering your phone all day anyway. You nearly gave Chie a heart attack, you know."

"_What's she got to be worried about? It's not like I was off eloping or something." _She laughs slightly. _"She should know by now that if I'm not answering my phone that I'm doing inn work. I'm sorry if she worried you."_

"That's really not the point-"

"_You had another reason for calling?" _She sounds a little surprised, although her somewhat weak voice made it come off more like sarcasm.

Now I had to be really picture perfect about this – I couldn't just warn her outright, but I had to at least make sure she was aware of the danger she was in, at least only somewhat. Yukiko was smart enough to reason out the rest on her own.

"Well, you've been worked kind of ragged this week, haven't you? I didn't even realize how out of it you were the other day." I lie through my teeth, praying that she'd take it.

"_It's not so bad. I'm not sure why you of all people are so worried though."_

"What, it's not like I can't be concerned if you're about to drop dead or something."

"_It's still not like you. Not at all, might I add." _For fuck's sake – she was on to me.

"Well, just be careful alright? You should be in bed already – see to it that you don't faint or something, alright?"

"…_You're telling me to go to bed early? Didn't we train each other to stay up until four in the morning, or something?"_

"…Look, Yukiko, just go to bed, alright? You need to stop working – you're going to drive yourself over the edge. And this is me telling you this, don't forget."

She laughs again. _"You're way too elitist to ever say something like that seriously. I already know the whole story – someone who looks like me showed up on that Midnight Channel thing, right?"_

I was completely stunned. She'd already figured it all out? Had Chie been the one to spill the beans? No, that wasn't right – she was taking this about as seriously as Yosuke and I were. Yukiko must have reasoned it out on her own or heard about it from someone else.

"…_You know, you've always been a bad liar. I just never really had the nerve to tell you before… I wonder, why am I like this now?"_

"…Yukiko?"

"_Maybe it's because you're actually trying to be honest with me…? It's kind of surprising – it's like things are the other way around now."_ She laughs again. _"…But thank you. It means a lot to me. It really does. So I'll go right to bed, no questions asked."_

"…If you're actually going to do that, then that'll be fine."

"…_You know, I think you're the only person who's ever called me up like this – I don't think Chie ever called me late at night to see how I was doing… Isn't that really funny?"  
_

I really didn't have much of a response for that, but before I can even come up with one she keeps on speaking. _"I just wish things could've been different… Do you have any idea how many times I've thought over what everything would've been like if…" _She trails off – it seems as though she doesn't want to recall the past any more than I do after all. _"…Ah, whatever. I'm just being stupid. Well, it's late, so goodnight."  
_

Before I even have the opportunity to reply she hangs up. I sigh – at least we'd resolved that problem. With enough luck Yukiko would be able to avoid capture, at least as long as she kept herself locked up in her room for the evening. That was about as much as I was going to be able to do – I could hopefully get some sleep once the Midnight Channel came on.

Of course in a matter of minutes everything would be determined.

And of course when the moment came, everything came crashing down –

And in the end I knew. With one look at the high class European dress her Shadow donned and the cheap, vacant but at the same time lecherous smile on her face, I knew –

I knew that Yukiko would have to face herself one way or another –

But like this?


	14. Affability

_**Author's Note**_

First and foremost I'd like to apologize for the extreme delay of this chapter, but now with SMT4 about to be released in the states and a Persona 5 announcement potentially on the horizon I could think of no better time to resume my writing here.

First thing you might notice is that **I have dropped the Azure from my penname**. There's no particularly huge reason for this, but just so people don't get confused somehow I'm going to leave my avatar the same as it's always been for the time being.

So with that aside, let's get started. Updates should be back to their normal schedule past this point.

* * *

_**2.4 Affability**_

_April 18__th__, 2011  
__For Now, My Name is Yu Narukami._

No matter how prepared I find myself to be, it would seem that things just get worse and worse without warning.

I don't even remember half of the details – I'm too busy fighting for my life at the moment to really care about how things ended up this way, although it had something to do with Chie being annoying enough that we were forced to bring her with us when we went after Yukiko the next day. I really should've seen this coming, but I suppose I was too concerned about Yukiko's wellbeing at the time to really be bothered by Chie's insistence to come along with us.

No more than five minutes after we'd gone into the TV she had run off on her own – and in giving chase we found ourselves surrounded by Shadows –

This place was a standard looking European castle, the only real difference being the presence of more Shadows than I knew what to do with. Luckily enough Yosuke's been ready and raring to go this whole time – every time I manage to fuck up he manages to make up for my mistake with his own Persona, Jiraiya, who seemed far more wind oriented than Izanagi was, very much like the Shadow that I'd beaten only two short days ago. Most of the ones surrounding us were incredibly weak, but they were still just as dangerous as any other Shadow, particularly to Chie who had somehow managed to bypass them all.

Eventually it seems as though Yosuke is going to faint from exhaustion – but I'd managed to find some fairly odd looking plant crap in an old box on the previous floor that evidently could help prolong our inevitable shutdown. Yosuke's reluctance to shove the foreign substance down his throat was actually substantial – there wasn't much sense to any of this, at least from a psychological standpoint, but at least we had a fighting chance now, given how Yosuke's new Persona could make up for every weakness that Izanagi had with its hefty magic focus. Izanagi didn't really seem all that suited to shooting off lightning bolts anyway – his physical brawn seemed to have more of an effect on everything we came across, although on the downside it left me even more prone to collapsing from exhaustion than Yosuke was.

Fortunately Yosuke could handle that problem, although only to the extent that it would make the fatigue a little less apparent – it was still a mental battle to keep going, but as long as Chie was still at risk the two of us could probably keep going almost no matter what.

There's not much else to this place – the Shadows are cruel and unusual and they attack in large groups – they most certainly understand the concept of strength in numbers, but even at that the Shadows individually seem to hit harder when they're unified compared to when we take them on solo.

The more we go on the more and more of them we take down – it gets to the point where we've gotten good enough at it that we realize that these monsters could turn into Personas, and so that implied that they could suffer from the same sort of ailments that our Personas were prone to. Knowing this our trek through the castle turned into more of a murder simulation than anything else –

People who take up boxing tend to enjoy the fight more than anything else. When they're in the ring they're in a whole other world from the one they're used to. The exhilaration and the raw emotions drive them to keep on fighting and to fight with everything they had – something that they might not have been able to replicate anywhere else. In the ring you are threatened, perhaps not with your life, but threatened with injury. With risk. And risk is quite attractive, even of only the reward is intoxicating.

For the two of us this was not the case. There was no exhilaration. There was only the tension of being killed. There was nothing we were risking but our lives. No matter how much money seemed to fall from the corpses of our victims all of it meant nothing if we died –

It was because someone's life was in danger. It was because if we failed someone we _knew _and someone we were _close to _would suffer the worst fate – because someone would end up like Yosuke. Someone would end up looking themselves in the face and wanting nothing more than for their life to end.

That was why we could fight. That was why we could force ourselves to do this. Because for someone to suffer at the hands of their own Shadow not only undermined that individual, but all of us collectively.

But –

But the fight grows long and we grow weary.

We find ourselves climbing a staircase after a full forty minutes of almost non-stop Shadow killing and hallway dashing – it would seem that the labyrinthine nature of this castle would prove to be the biggest obstacle of all, as no matter how good we got at killing Shadows and no matter how many weaknesses we could exploit we would always have a finite limit. And unless we could move through this castle quickly, we'd be far too exhausted to fight whatever was at the top floor.

We really weren't consciously fighting. That much was made clear to me. Instead we were just killing. We were killing foe after foe, searching for some kind of end point to it all. It really didn't matter who we were saving, or why we were even there at that point –

There were simply too many Shadows for our egos to deal with – on a level that neither of us could understand our foes, despite falling to us one by one, were tearing us apart.

We were fighting to reach an 'end' and while we were there, climbing that staircase, only the part of us that was left was the part that could reach that end. The part of us that had decided what we were doing had been left at the door – all that we were doing was 'acting'.

It didn't matter what that end was – but unless we reached it we couldn't stop. The irrationality in our thoughts alone would be enough to get us killed.

But we were still alive – and only because of _them_.

This part of us that could fight, and not only just fight but fight _well_ – it wasn't a side that either of us knew we had, but at the same time it was a side that was always there.

We always had the capacity to fight like this – to fight ourselves. To fight the aspects of humanity that we try our hardest to discard. And we fight fire with fire – Shadow with Shadow. But because of how underdeveloped our Shadow half was and how useless the Ego was, we had no way of fighting back on our own – not without them.

Without our Personas we were nothing more than that – we were nothing more than weak Shadows that could barely hold a candle to any single one that we'd slain on our way here. Without our Personas we almost have no meaning in a place like this. And so I can finally understand just how screwed Chie will be if she gets attacked, provided she hasn't already cracked from being trapped under the pressure.

Eventually we finally reach the end at the top of the second set of stairs that we find – We find a set of double doors that Teddie promptly warns us about.

"There's something on the other side, guys…" He trails off, his fear rather evident.

"More Shadows, eh…?" Yosuke sighs. "How the hell did Chie manage to even get this far?"

I don't reply. I really can't reply. Because I'm just so damn exhausted.

While we finally had the opportunity to rest here, the strain on my body wasn't any less tremendous. Only now it was much worse – I felt like I was going to lose my mind.

After all, fighting those Shadows was already bad enough if not for the inane screaming.

Yosuke likely didn't hear a word because of the music he had blasting in his ears the whole time. Evidently it helped him focus, but it also served to drown out the cries.

The Shadows are in pain. They're crying out in agitation. They're trying so desperately to escape from _something_, but it's all too apparent that it's not us they're trying to run from.

There's something _wrong _about this place. And not even just this castle – this whole dimension was corrupt by some strange force that I really couldn't understand. This place felt so familiar to me, almost like I could take a nap for hours on that studio platform and not have a care in the world, but at the same time it felt as though there was some malicious force that was tearing away at everything and everyone inside.

Of course if the cries were just inane screaming, I wouldn't care as much.

But they were all saying things in the same gargled voice –

The more I hack away at them, the more the voices seemed to permeate. The louder they became. The more intense the emotions they projected. And –

And the more familiar their words became.

_Come on, this fight's not over!  
__No. Don't get scared. I'm with you.  
__That bastard! We have to beat him, no matter what!  
__I can't believe he's the one…!  
__I-Is that a Persona?! No way…!  
__That Looked Like it Hurt!  
__You can win this!  
__Go, senpai! Keep up the streak!  
__That's the way, senpai. Do some more damage.  
__That's great senpai. Go in for the kill.  
__That's great senpai. You really get me going.  
__S-Senpai? Are you okay?  
__Senpai no! Please get up.  
__Someone help senpai.  
__S-senpai? No!_

At first they had been soft, practically nothing more than murmurs. But the screams had gradually gotten louder and louder. These words that expressed an array of feelings, all converted into a desperate cry that would never end – It was driving me mad. It was driving me over the edge. The more and more I thought about all of this the more I felt the confusion settling in. The more I felt the need to question how I understood things.

And I was beginning to ask questions.

I was beginning to express uncertainties.

What if Chie's not even past here? What if all that awaits us past here is certain death? I sure as hell can't fight right now, and Yosuke's probably about to collapse too. What if Chie never even made it this far? What if the Shadows suddenly decide to break form and kill someone when it's bright and sunny? There's no way I can really assume anything about them – I was thinking rationally, but these creatures are far from rational.

What if –

But before I could torture myself any further, I see it out of the corner of my eye –

The blue butterfly, now hovering above the ground and flying and circles off in the corner of the room by the door.

The brilliance of that blue light –

It soothed me. There was just something about it that calmed the quelling sea of troubles in my heart.

I reach out to touch it –

And the moment I do, I'm filled with this extreme sort of warmth –

And while I'm still about to fall apart –

I feel as though it'll be alright if we keep going.

"…At any rate, we need to keep moving." I finally break my silence. "Chie can't be that much further ahead. She's not _that _fast."

"Alright, if you say so…" Yosuke sighs again. "Geez, I should've eaten a little more for lunch if I knew I'd be working this hard all day…"

Without any further hesitation the three of us decide it best to head through the doors –

Of course on the other side we almost regret that decision immediately, even if only because we were now faced with another worst case scenario –

Chie was standing there, in the middle of the room, listening to the disembodied voice of Yukiko go on and on –

_Yukiko… Snow… I really just hate my name.  
__Narukami-kun probably doesn't even like it.  
__I'm sure Chie doesn't like my name either.  
__It's so… Dull. Boring. Just like the snow, I guess.  
__But that's what I am – dull and boring.  
__So it's perfect for me…  
_…  
_Hm…  
__Chie.  
__Chie, Chie, Chie…  
__That's a much better name.  
__But I don't deserve to have that name.  
__Because Chie's just such a wonderful person -  
Without her I don't have anything.  
__Narukami-kun probably wouldn't even look at me again if Chie wasn't around.  
__She's such a good person –  
__And I'm nothing like her.  
__Nothing at all.  
__I'm nothing without Chie.  
__I'm such a horrible woman.  
__Taking advantage of her like that –  
__If she never has to look at me again, I think I'd be content.  
_

And –

And standing across from her –

Is another Chie.

"It's funny." The Shadow speaks freely. "It's _really _funny. So funny I wanna die laughing – _she's _the one who's being taken advantage of here… Yukiko… What a tramp."

"W-What the hell are you saying something like that for?!" Chie fires up right away – her personality was the absolute worst for a scenario like this.

"Everyone wants in on Yukiko… Everyone wants a piece of the Amagi Challenge. But no one would look twice at boring, one-dimensional Chie, right? But Yukiko – she's such an idiot. She doesn't even realize that she's the one who has _everything_… She's so far above me, but she's wrapped around my finger. She thinks I know every little thing about her and only cares about her best interest… Isn't it great? To be able to _dominate _a 'perfect' girl like that?! Being able to do _whatever I want _when _I _should be the one with no friends? Ahh…" She wraps her arms around herself for a needlessly suggestive effect. "…If only her precious 'Narukami-kun' had stayed home… She'd be all mine, forever."

"That's… That's not right…! That's just wrong!" Chie starts shouting again.

And so it comes together. I can see where I fit into this now –

Chie had been somewhat obsessive over Yukiko, perhaps for quite some time. It was more likely than not, especially considering her Shadow's particular brand of disdain for me that Yukiko had at one point or another told her everything – she'd told her about every insecurity or trouble that she'd ever had and Chie had probably offered to be her friend despite all of it –

Then when Yukiko gradually got older and became a hot topic of discussion, Chie knew that she was slowly slipping away from her. But even more prominently, Chie felt inferior. As they both grew older Yukiko's body held more weight than Chie's personality. The sort of relationship they had, despite being as unadulterated as all relationships were, could very rarely stand the test of the shift in society – while their bond could remain strong there was no guarantee that it could last forever. And if Yukiko were to ever realize the sort of social life she was essentially entitled to involved more elements than just her bond with Chie, Chie's 'worth' would be the wrench in the gears – Chie had come to this conclusion rather quickly. But Yukiko didn't care about any of that – she only cared about Chie and only seemed interested in preserving their friendship, uninterested in that other life she could have with other people.

And from there Chie was her whole social life. Only Chie had come to develop a dominatrix complex upon realizing that what she had come to value and what she had come to embody were meaningless in the eyes of the social world she'd been drafted into along with everyone else –

Chie was one of a kind. And that was what made it impossible for her to be anything that she wasn't.

This is what she was – a person who had to take advantage of someone and pull them down to their level to escape from it – to escape from the world she hated but had no choice but to live in.

It was Yosuke's problem, although from a slightly different perspective.

"Who are you to even say something like that?!" Chie keeps on shouting.

"Hey, partner…" Yosuke whispers to me. "If we stop her now –"

"We can't stop her now. If we try to talk her out of this it'll only be a matter of time before she ends up like this again – Yukiko's probably the only one who she could listen to right now anyways, not that it would even do her any good. She needs to get all of this out in the open – just like with you, she can't keep ignoring this."

"Hm…" Yosuke is clearly anxious – he wants to keep Chie from getting hurt, first and foremost, but he had apparently accepted that she had to feel the burn like he had.

Only a few more seconds go by before Chie loses it –

'You're not me!' seems to be the most basic way of rejecting yourself. Because just as Yosuke had said it so does Chie.

And her Shadow becomes another massive entity – This one with an oddly banana shaped mask and rather skimpy clothing, seated atop a small tower of puppets wearing the Yasogami uniform, all struggling to hold her up.

This would indeed be problematic, not even just because of the fight that was about to begin, but because Chie's Shadow was out for blood – my blood.

_Be careful with this one, alright? _Izanagi warns me. _We're not going to kick her ass the same way we skewered that frog. _

And sure enough, the moment our fight begins and Chie is sent flying Yosuke forgets about his job and runs to her side – leaving the Shadow free to launch a gust of wind right at me –

I manage to get out of the way fast enough but she follows up with a strong snap of the whip in her hands – I'm unable to avoid this strike, but Izanagi manages to absorb most of the damage.

And from there it's just a flurry – she swings the whip wildly, half of her strikes not even landing anywhere near me –

With a sharp screech the space around us suddenly seems to drop in temperature –

And a massive wall of extremely jagged ice suddenly shoots up out of the ground, sending me flying. The sheer cold of the wall tears away at my skin – it didn't hurt as much as the wind seemed to but having been sent flying certainly took the wind out of me.

By the time I rise to my feet Yosuke has made his way over and manages to strike the Shadow with a wind burst of his own – the Shadow clearly feels the strength of that blow and is forced backward, the tower of puppets swaying harshly –

Yosuke moves in for another strike, this time allowing Jiraiya to get in a solid blow to the Shadow's face – the strike carries enough weight behind it to almost knock the Shadow off of the tower, but it manages to recover fast enough to grab hold of Jiraiya before he can make his escape –

I send Izanagi forward to help him get away, but it's too late – the Shadow electrocutes Jiraiya through where they are joined, sending Yosuke through a brief period of immobility as he feels the shock as harshly has Jiraiya does – as Izanagi rushes forward I try to move to Yosuke's side to prevent him from being left completely open, but with another snap of that god forsaken whip I'm forced to back off –

Fortunately she didn't have enough hands to keep all three of us at bay – Izanagi manages to get close enough that she's within slashing distance – with a swing of Izanagi's sword she's forced to let go of Jiraiya as the tower of puppets suddenly spasms for a moment before managing to leap off the ground with their master in tow –

However, she's a bit too slow and is still at least in Jiraiya's range.

Yosuke coughs. "Heh… Not when you pull a stunt like that, you bitch…!"

Jiraiya spirals towards the Shadow and manages to land another solid blow to its face, although in the scuffle that follows he gets grabbed again – Izanagi sees this coming, however, and moves in while anticipating another opening.

He has his chance to strike, but another wall of ice surrounds the Shadow, blocking Izanagi off – but that doesn't stop him. He shatters the ice with his sword and continues to charge through, tackling the Shadow with his whole body, sending the tower of puppets off balance completely and causing it to collapse.

The Shadow manages to leap from the tower before it can touch the ground and releasing Jiraiya it momentarily distracts Izanagi with a bolt of lightning – there wasn't any chance in hell that it would've done any substantial amount of damage to him, but it was rather obviously not the point –

In the moment Izanagi pauses to shield himself the Shadow tries to reform the puppet tower and manages to do so swiftly enough that it never touches the ground and with a swift but inhumanly strong kick it sends Izanagi flying into the floor, his impact creating a decent sized crater in the floor – but in the moment it wasn't making any real attempt to defend itself Jiraiya manages to slip in and twirls his standard gust of wind into a boxing glove for his right fist –

And with a lightning fast punch the Shadow is almost set off balance again – almost. But by the time Jiraiya realizes it isn't immobile it's already too late – the Shadow wraps its whip around Jiraiya's waist and pulls him closer. Jiraiya resists but with both of its hands on the whip the Shadow can't be overpowered –

And Izanagi finally takes his opening and with a forward trust his blade pierces the whip, freeing Jiraiya and snapping it completely. The Shadow tries to pull off another ice spell but Jiraiya moves to tackle the puppet tower, breaking her focus for just enough time for Izanagi to get in a final blow – with a well timed kick he manages to send the Shadow flying off of its tower once more, spiraling uncontrollably into the wall on the far end of the room.

Upon flipping off the Shadow as it goes flying, Izanagi extends his fist to Jiraiya, apparently trying to have a bro-fist moment over their victorious teamwork. Jiraiya doesn't seem to get the gesture and blinks at him several times before heading off towards the fallen Shadow while Izanagi is left shrugging his shoulders.

_The hell is wrong with that guy? Does he not get out much or something? _He sighs.

The Shadow doesn't stay down for long- in a matter of moments it's up on its own two feet, apparently completely undeterred by Izanagi's kick. Jiraiya manages to pummel it down onto the ground again with an even higher frequency of his blinding fast punches, but at this point it seems like our Personas aren't really doing all that much to deter it.

"Something's kinda off, don't you think?" Yosuke eventually breaks our silence, having at least somewhat recovered from the pain of that electric shock he'd suffered earlier.

"Honestly the way things are right now I'm not sure if this is going to work out the way we want it to."

"And that means…?"

"Chie's Shadow is… Different from yours. Izanagi seems to think so to."

Yosuke looks at me a little dumbfounded. "…Wait, you can, like, _talk _to your Persona?"

"Uh… I kind of assumed that we could both do that."

"Nah, I don't get a word out of mine. But if I'm being honest he's having an easier time with this Shadow than yours is."

"I can sort of see that." Granted Jiraiya hadn't been hit with as heavy an amount of firepower as Izanagi had.

…

…

And then it hits me.

So _that _was the problem –

She was after my blood. She was targeting me because I was what stood between her and Yukiko. So…

Jiraiya had been hit fairly badly earlier on in the fight. But he was never out cold on the ground for as long as Izanagi had been – in fact, he'd only been hit with that electric shock – every other time he'd been attacked directly by the Shadow he'd just been grabbed. The Shadow wouldn't let Izanagi anywhere near her, while Jiraiya was being pulled into several full on attacks fairly consistently.

"…Let me handle this on my own for a bit. You need to get Chie back on her feet." I speak my thoughts out loud.

Yosuke looks dumbfounded. "W-Wait, are you serious?!"

"If I'm right… Well, you'll find out if I'm right."

Jiraiya somewhat begrudgingly backs off as Yosuke moves away from the fight and towards Chie – the Shadow is left with only Izanagi to fight. As I had expected, its opening move is that ice wall, which seemed to be its most threatening move – the ice itself wasn't as detrimental to Izanagi as the wind had been. Instead it was just that much more powerful. And as far as I could tell the only one the Shadow was interested in hitting with it was Izanagi.

Izanagi struggles severely at that point – all of his attacks are met with the same kind of ferocity that the Shadow had expressed at the start of the fight. His blows don't amount to very much – there's a certain extent to which I could tell that I was doing damage, but the Shadow seemed to take everything like a sponge. It showed no signs of slowing down or anything that would suggest that my attacks were doing anything of any serious merit.

Yosuke manages to work Chie over to where we are – she's still completely out of it, but at least she was able to actively move now. Granted at the moment she was like Yosuke had been before – unwilling to even stand, let alone to face her most pressing issues head on.

"I hope you know what you're doing." Yosuke sighs. "You should look at yourself in a mirror right now – you look like you're gonna faint about as much as _she _does."

"I know exactly what I'm doing. Which is why I'm going tag out for a moment."

Yosuke gives me yet another stunned look. "…Are you seriously going to let me fight that thing alone?"

"I'm not going to be of much help here. She's denying me too completely. I'm part of her problem as much as Yukiko is. Right now you're the only one here that isn't part of her whole complex. You're someone she knows, and knows well enough at that."

Yosuke shakes his head. "Dude, that's exactly why I _shouldn't _be the one trying to pull her out of this."

"Do you want to save her, or not?" I tell him straight up how it is.

"Of course I do, but –"

"You don't think you 'deserve' to help her or something?"

Yosuke grunts with frustration as he tries to come up with a response. "It's just that I don't… What the hell do you want me to convey to her?"

What indeed.

Perhaps I'd spoken too soon. I'd decided that it was impossible for me to get through to Chie, which most certainly made sense. But at the same time I really didn't know how _anyone _could get through to Chie, aside from perhaps Yukiko. How exactly could Yosuke resolve this situation on his own?

"You heard her bitching from before, right?"

"Well, yeah, how could I have missed it?"

"…Any ideas? Any clue as to what it is she's trying to get across? Because I'll be honest with you. I'm completely out of ideas."

"Eh…?! How the hell do you expect _me _to have any chance, then?"

Before I'm able to give him any sort of response Chie's Shadow lunges towards us directly – it would seem that Izanagi was unable to keep things at bay for as long as I'd hoped and now –

And now I'm sent flying across the room myself, the back of my head slamming into the far off wall – the moment I manage to get my bearings I realize that not only am I completely spent, but I'm also too far away to get anywhere near them without being repelled – I'd run out of juice, dooming Chie and Yosuke to the Shadow's whims.

But –

But before the Shadow is able to strike, Jiraiya appears above them and Yosuke manages to stand tall, shielding Chie from her other half's undying fury. He hadn't the slightest clue how to put a stop to this, but even then he wasn't going to give in – he was likely running on pure adrenaline at this point, but there was nothing left to hold him back –

When Yosuke was put in a do or die situation, it seemed he was the most reliable – he would always _do_, and the strength of his glass-half-full mentality would shine through.

He wanted to protect Chie. That much was clear. His reason didn't matter – after all, he left his reason at the door.

His raw emotions – every aspect of his Shadow that he had come to terms with was expressed through his Persona – and his Persona would take a beating for Chie, even if Yosuke himself could not.

Jiraiya begins to sustain blow after blow as the Shadow wails down on him with its fists, having no weapon and likely had been pushed to the limit of her spell casting capabilities when Izanagi had held her off. Jiraiya was sturdy enough to keep standing tall despite how every strike would eat away at him from the inside and Yosuke's remarkably high tolerance for pain kept things slightly more even, despite how the Shadow was clearly winning.

With a very loud sigh, Yosuke starts speaking. "You can hear me, right? Or did you pass out or some shit like that?"

Chie is only somewhat responsive, her daze still mostly in effect. She fidgets around, but Yosuke wasn't able to see for himself if she'd reacted to his words at all.

"Well, either way, I'm only going to say this shit once, alright?" He grunts as the Shadow suddenly pounds on Jiraiya with enough extra force to almost send him off balance. "You know what you're problem is? It's that you're so hell-bent on getting other people to like you. And don't think I haven't noticed – you know that other girls won't look twice at you because you're not full of yourself and it shows. You know that not many guys want you as their girlfriend and it shows. People don't accept you because in their eyes you're a mess who can barely even call herself a girl – but you know what? Fuck them. Fuck them all."

Chie tilts her head upward – she sees Yosuke standing over her, speaking his mind about as freely as possible.

"Fuck trying to fit in. Fuck trying to be what people want you to be. You're not Yukiko's best friend because you're a girl. Because you're a certain kind of person she wants you to be. She's your friend because she likes _you_. You're not 'dragging her down to your level' or any stupid shit like that. You're friends, and that's not going to change because you're getting older. Yukiko doesn't have to depend on you, and you sure as hell don't have to depend on her."

The Shadow begins to wail even louder – Jiraiya is almost at his limit. I try to stand, but my bones are just too weak to do anything else – this was all in Yosuke's hands.

"Yukiko's not like other people, and that's why you're drawn to her. But she's drawn to you for the same reason. You're both friends because you can both feel the same way about how things are – you're both people that don't want to be thrown under the rug. Who don't want to be abandoned just because they want to be who they are, and neither of you are the only people in the world that're like that…!" He grunts again as Jiraiya takes a rather fatal looking blow to the side of the head –

His guard is completely broken, and in all of a moment the Shadow takes hold of Jiraiya's neck, and with a sickening crack snaps it in two. Thankfully Yosuke only felt the pain of the attack and hadn't been affected by it as well .

"You've gotta be fucking kidding me…!" Yosuke shouts from the pain –

Jiraiya crumples to the floor, clearly dead, at least for the time being. Chances were by the time he could recover it would be far too late.

The Shadow huffs as it raises its fists for another strike – Chie, still submissive to it all, shields herself for the final blow.

Yosuke takes the blow in its entirety, managing to grab a hold of one of the Shadow's arms to lessen the intensity – the other fist seems to break his shoulder, but given how his stance remained unwavering it must have only damaged a portion of it.

He gasps, the pain almost too much for his body to handle – his body is shaking almost uncontrollably, but he still remains standing. "…Society sucks ass. People suck ass too. But fuck it. Fuck all of it. If you can… find just _one _other person who… Sees things the way you do, there's always a way around it. If you and just one other person can see things the way they are but still be able to wake up in the morning and put a smile on your face, no matter how fake it is, it'll be fine… Do you get it yet? There are fucking millions of people who could be that one other person, and as long as you don't stop being who you are, as long as you don't stop being Chie Satonaka and start being some dumb slut like everyone else, you'll keep meeting them, and then one day you'll wake up and you've suddenly got all the friends you could ever want… And…!"

The Shadow's screaming almost drowns out Yosuke's voice as it rains down on him one final time with a jab sent straight towards his face –

He manages to block the strike, trying with all his might to push the Shadow back. The two are locked together, the Shadow's physical strength apparently starting to wane –

"…And if Yukiko's an idiot for screwing all those other people… If she's an idiot for wanting to know you, for wanting to be your friend… That makes the guy behind us an idiot, and it makes me an even bigger idiot… Hell, I can't speak for anyone else, but I sure as hell know I'd be an idiot for the rest of my life…!" He grits his teeth, the pain slowly winning out. "I'm not dumb enough to make promises I can't keep, but… But I fucking swear, right now – before you know it you're going to be in a room full of idiots just like us, and you're not going to know why the hell you ever thought we were dumb in the first place!"

The Shadow moves to attack again, this time much to Yosuke's dismay – there was very little chance he could take another blow like the ones he'd been suffering -

I take my chances and send Izanagi forth – with a fairly weak swing of his blade he manages to bash in the Shadow's face –

This time the Shadow finally falls apart, much like Yosuke's had – and in a matter of moments, once the dark haze fades away all that's left is Chie's battered and bruised form, still clearly capable of tearing us apart at will.

And with a frustrated shout Chie finally breaks her silence. "That's _enough _already!" The Shadow stops midway through its stride towards Yosuke. "That's enough. He's right. We've gotta stop this."

"We…?" The Shadow speaks, barely above a whisper.

Chie gets off the floor and although somewhat wobbly at first she manages to walk towards her doppelganger – I sigh with relief. At least I knew this had ended without any particularly severe injuries, although Yosuke was probably beaten up too badly for me to say that accurately.

"All my life I've been protecting myself. That's how it's always been. I've always seen people as things that I could rely on to better myself, but it wasn't until I realized that _I _was the one being treated as a thing that I understood just how lost I was… Yukiko was the only one who looked past that material part of me and just wanted to be my friend, even when I didn't deserve her at all. And the more things changed the more I thought she was just going to be like everyone else, so I started to hold onto her and wouldn't let go, steering her away from other people so she wouldn't stop looking at me – I didn't believe in 'good people', and I definitely didn't see them all around me even though they were always there. But I'm an idiot, so it only makes sense that I wouldn't."

Chie grabs hold of her Shadow's shoulder and bashes their heads together. "I'm done trying to protect myself. I don't _need _to protect myself. I don't matter anymore. You and me – we're gonna save Yukiko, we're going to tell her things the way they are, and if she doesn't want to speak to us ever again then that's fine. I'm not good for her anyway. Because I don't need her to be me – as long as I can look myself in the mirror… and as long as I can protect one other person who can respect me for it, then I can put up with whatever shit other people want me to go through."

Her Shadow remains completely silent – but before too long, as Yosuke's Shadow had, its expression softens as it slowly nods its head.

And her Shadow becomes a Persona –

Only moments later she finds herself exhausted, and almost crumples to the floor on the spot. But she manages to keep herself standing long enough to turn around –

Yosuke suddenly coughs up a tremendous amount of blood and falls over –

"Teddie…!" I call out. "You're gonna have to pull some weight this time."

The bear in question hops along towards Yosuke, who Chie was already attempting to revive. I manage to pull myself to my feet without much issue, but it would seem that several of my ribs were damaged during that fight. Chie's Shadow certainly meant business and given how I'd been practically mauled by her ice walls and Yosuke had essentially been beaten to within an inch of his life, and I could tell that these Shadows would only get more primal as we went on. I could only imagine how out of control Yukiko's Shadow would be, although for the moment I didn't have time to think about her condition when Yosuke was potentially at his mortal limit.

I walk myself over to where the others were.

"Christ…" Yosuke groans. "I think your Shadow was more of a bitch than mine was."

"Can you stand?" I try to cut to the chase. "Not to undermine how busted up you are, but if we hang around here for too long chances are we're going to get bum rushed by the Shadows again."

Chie glances towards the staircase beyond us – she clearly wanted to go after Yukiko but she kept silent about it. "Don't worry if you can't – I'll carry you out myself if I have to. We'll get out of here right away." She reassures him as Teddie tries to wriggle his stubby arms underneath Yosuke –

It ends up taking all three of us to hoist Yosuke in the air, although Chie made up for my general lack of usefulness given how I couldn't really lift anything right now without straining myself beyond belief. Yosuke's healing power would ironically be rather useful right about now, but we had to make do without it for the time being.

All the while Chie refuses to look at me in the eyes – but it's already too late.

At this point I've already seen the look in her eyes – her heart had been pried open and I had been there to see all the blood spill out. While she didn't seem to concerned about Yosuke having been there to witness her breakdown, I was far too much of a stranger to her. All I was to her was that one guy who until a few moments ago was the biggest threat to her relationship with Yukiko. If she didn't want to speak to me any time soon, that was fine, but –

The smallest number of people possible had to be present for Yukiko's meltdown. Even more specific than that – I couldn't let anyone else come with me. I was the only one who could be there, otherwise the strain on her heart would simply be too much.

On our way back the Shadows pose a great threat to us – we manage to dodge the majority of them but we were still attacked by enough that Izanagi had more than enough trouble on his hands – his senses were about as dulled as mine were right now, but fortunately we manage to avoid the majority of the stronger Shadows as we made our way down to the bottom floor.

All the while it becomes rather apparent to me that I'm the only one who can hear those voices. Neither Chie nor Teddie seem to react to them at all. As for why that was the case? Well rather obviously that was beyond me, just as much as everything else about this bizarre world was.

On the way back Yosuke starts to speak his mind. He goes on about how we're now a team and we have to do everything we could to save Yukiko. Somewhere along the line he nominates me to be the leader of this newly formed team and Chie doesn't object –

But more importantly, we had all come to a common conclusion with a common goal – we were going to save Yukiko and anyone else that was tossed into this world unwillingly. We all might have had slightly different reasons, but that was the beauty of it – we could all fight to the very end because we were all determined. We were determined to see this through to the end for our own reasons and so nothing would be able to hold us down.

The moment that resolution becomes apparent –

I feel something within me. Something like a spark going off in some corner of my brain.

My vision swims for a moment and I almost let go of Yosuke, but I don't pay his light objection any mind –

I can hear a voice –

A voice that was clearly my own, but at the same time clearly wasn't –

_Thou who hast braved the forest of death for us all  
__Thou art I and I am thou  
__Thy bonds grant thee strength. They bring thee closer to the truth.  
__Henceforth, thou shalt be blessed by the benevolence of the Fool Arcana…_

* * *

_April 19__th__, 2011  
__For Now, My Name is Yu Narukami._

The evening that followed that whole incident sucked. Tremendously. It took way too much work to hide my injuries from Nanako and Dojima and it took even more work to get myself to sleep that night. I couldn't let myself get treated by anyone but Yosuke – there wasn't any sense in troubling my already troubled guardian and his emotionally fragile daughter any more than they already were troubled by my being here, and so I put myself through a normal routine with several cracked ribs eating away at me the whole time.

I don't even really remember the details of today – Chie might've apologized for letting things get out of hand but the only thing of note that stood out was that Yosuke was sick at home, although it honestly made more sense for him to go straight to a hospital. Then again he could've just lied to her to keep her from getting out of control, but the point was that Yosuke wasn't going to be actively doing much of anything, at least not for the next few days.

Unfortunately the next few days couldn't be spent sitting around and doing nothing. I had to pull Yukiko out of there before something happened to her – I couldn't afford to wait. Even if she wasn't in immediate danger of being killed…

Well, I didn't want to put the possibility out of my head that she could off herself before I could get to her –

Of course this was based on one very particular event that had happened back then, before I'd left her – something that I really shouldn't get into until the time is right.

In any event, the possibility was there. Her Shadow most certainly knew so as well. And given how much animosity her Shadow doubtlessly had bottled up, chances were even now she was being backed into a corner. Backed into another scenario where she would believe she has no way out. And if that were to happen –

I had to go back into the TV today. I couldn't wait for Yosuke to recover and for Chie to mentally prepare herself for the fight ahead – hesitation would result in defeat. And I couldn't lose. Not to her.

And so I went back into the TV from the Junes monitor –

Oddly enough the studio platform seemed awfully… quiet this time around. It was then that I noticed that Teddie wasn't standing in attention, beaming at me like he usually was –

Instead he was seated on the floor a few feet away from the entrance, staring blankly straight ahead at nothing in particular. He didn't seem to even notice that I was there.

I walk over and peer down at him before poking him several times on the head – he seemed largely unresponsive. Perhaps he was asleep, if that were even possible. I decide not to question it and proceed onward – I already knew the path to the castle and I didn't want to waste any time. My movement is a little sluggish due to my unhealed injuries but I can't let those stop me.

I find myself able to resume my travels from the room we'd faced Chie's Shadow in – when I open the front door I'm suddenly teleported to that space just before where the blue butterfly had been – although now it had vanished. I suppose I couldn't assume that it would hang around forever.

I proceed onward –

But this time, when I enter that massive room, she's right there in front of me –

Yukiko's Shadow, with that same vacant expression and that same dress that Yukiko wouldn't be caught dead wearing.

I was certain that she wasn't going to make it this easy for me. But at least I knew that she was flamboyant enough to want to show off in front of a lot of people.

After all, Yukiko's biggest issue was her lack of friends. Her personality was never as suited to it as she would've liked it to be. It was clear from the whole 'quest for her prince charming' bit that she was desperately trying to find someone to take her away from all of it. It was a bit less straightforward than I would've liked for it to be, but this was all a call for help, specifically aimed at both myself and Chie. She wanted one of us to take her and everything she was with her. But the key point to all of this was that it didn't matter to her _who _took her away. And that alone made it perfectly clear to me what her mindset was going into this –

Upon noticing me the Shadow frowns. "There's only one of you today? That's disappointing."

"I'd figure that we could cut out all the bullshit and get this over with. I think you've spent enough time mocking yourself on live television to get your point across."

She laughs. "If you think so, then why is this still not enough…?"

"Not enough for her to accept you? Because she doesn't know _why _you exist or _why _she has to accept you. Pointing out all of your faults like this only makes it worse. Making it clear that you're full of flaws is a bit redundant, don't you think…?" I draw my katana. "Ah, but you don't listen to reason, do you? You're a Shadow – and like all Shadows all that applies to you are your base instincts. All people are the same – if they're trapped they want to be free. You can act out as much as you want – Yukiko has more self control than you ever will."

She narrows her eyes at me. "And you're so sure of that because…?"

"Don't act like you don't know. Yukiko is rejecting you because she wants to be what people expect her to be. She doesn't want to accept that she lacks the capacity to throw away her freedom and wants to believe that her shortcomings don't matter. That she can keep going on the way she is despite being trapped, but only if she has someone to lock in with her – she can't keep going like this, but you don't have any right to kill her over it."

"What makes you say that?" She says with a laugh.

"Because people are capable of change. Unlike you, she can change for the better. But all you're willing to do is continue to throw your tantrum like a child."

"Hm… But weren't _you _the one who said I don't act on anything but instinct?" She turns away. "You know as well as I do that she won't accept me… I refuse to be a part of her anymore."

"Then I'll kick your ass until you change your mind."

"Then why don't you come find me then, my prince?" With a haughty giggle she fades away into the darkness.

Without hesitation I continue onward, scaling the stairs at the end of the small hallway past that room.

This wasn't good enough. I had to let her go mad and I had to take her down myself. That was the only way to truly resolve this.

I fight through hordes and hordes of Shadows on my own – it was insanity, but I had to be the one to do this. I had to convey the truth to Yukiko and this was the only way I was ever going to do it.

I pick and choose my battles, electing to run from fights that Izanagi clearly stood no chance of winning. Every fight I'm forced into is another chance for me to die – Izanagi could only do so much and with every hit I took the closer I was to falling over and never getting back up. The further I explored the more dazed I became, and it only could grow worse and worse – there was no alleviation. Not with those voices constantly tearing away at my mind.

I keep on scaling the staircases, one after another, fighting Shadow after Shadow with limited success, all leading to a final battle with Yukiko's Shadow that I wasn't confident that I could win. But I didn't have a choice. Yukiko was constantly at risk and even if this place only killed people when it rained I couldn't let her stay in here even remotely that long.

Eventually I come to a floor that is a very linear and square hallway. Yukiko's Shadow taunts me as I enter, implying that she had set some sort of trap for me, but as I go from room to room searching for the source of her voice there doesn't seem to be anything at all in my way. Eventually I even find the staircase leading onward, but I elect to investigate the rest of the floor before pressing onward.

I eventually find her, alone in a rather dimly lit room that was in no particularly outstanding place.

She frowns again. "Hm…? Why didn't my trap work? Are you cheating or something?"

"Why would I even know what that means? Whatever trap you set evidently didn't work out for you –" I point my katana towards her. "And I see no better opportunity to put an end to all of this –"

Of course the moment I do so she suddenly vanishes. I hear her laugh from somewhere behind me before her voice fades out entirely. I sigh before leaving the room and heading back towards the staircase –

The rest of the climb is uneventful in the sense that Yukiko's Shadow did not try to interfere with me past that point. But the Shadows only got stronger and stronger. But despite how weak I was, I felt myself getting stronger right along with them – Izanagi's strength still had no parallel, even though it was largely impaired.

But the voices –

The voices still don't stop…

It's so redundant at this point. Perhaps the only reason why I'm complaining about it at all is because it gives me something to focus on besides how screwed I'd almost doubtlessly be once I reached the top of this castle.

But I couldn't let it stop me.

Because Yukiko's life was always constantly in danger…

…

It wasn't all that long before we'd split up. Yukiko had been driven into a corner – she'd always been a little depressed, but she'd gotten herself into such a rut that it began to express through everything. Her expression, her speech, and most prominently to her parents, at least her grades – she was slowly sinking into despair only because she'd taken my rejection of her to mean that she was untouchable. That there was no way she could ever move past the life she'd always had because no one in the outside world would accept her.

One evening she called me and casually told me that she was about to throw herself from the roof of the apartment building that they were staying at. It took some serious work, but I managed to talk her out of it. The fact that she'd called me proved that she wanted someone to tell her she was wrong and that everything would work out – and I'd done that for her, as ignorant as I was to what effect it would have on her afterward.

I knew there were people she cared about in Inaba. And I told her that as long as she had those people there wasn't anything she had to worry about. That she could live the way she wanted to.

Of course when she grew up the hollow nature of my words began to show itself. And she slowly slipped back into that despair. It made sense – people are always afraid of something, and that fear isn't something we can ever escape. But I had to expunge this fear from her permanently – she couldn't retrogress into this again. Especially not if I had the chance to save her from it twice.

And so I make my way towards that high point. Towards that climax.

And –

And eventually I reach the top floor, and I find the blue butterfly waiting for me.

…

…

Everything will be fine.

I'll stop her. I'll make her see –

And so I open the doors, and sure enough both Yukikos are there, the Shadow seated in an elegant throne while Yukiko struggled to even stand by the stairs. She'd already been in here for too long – her skin was pale enough and her eyes weary enough to suggest that not only had she been completely deprived of sleep but she had also been deprived of food and water – there was no way she could survive under those conditions for every long even _if _this world had some way to put off the damages of her suffering until it deemed the time right for her to die.

This was torture. There was no sense in any of this. Her Shadow couldn't make a point if the one she wanted to understand her most could barely keep herself awake.

"This ends here." I announce to them both. "No more running away. No more false promises.

"Oooh, look, our prince has arrived!" The Shadow gleefully announces while Yukiko only manages to look in my direction – she seems to want to speak, but she was apparently too weak to. "Well that wasn't much of a greeting."

"You see how ridiculous this is? Do you have even an iota of humility?"

"This is the way things have to be for people like us, don't you see? And she understands that too – after all, we're the same person. We both know that everything sucks. Our family sucks, our inn sucks – if Chie wasn't around I don't know _how _long I'd have been able to hold out…!"

Yukiko doesn't offer any reaction.

"People can't live alone – you're definitely right about that. But people only hurt each other. People always want to hold other people down – that goes for me too… I want someone to take me away, to a castle far away that I can live in for the rest of my life without a care in the world… Ah, but I can't have _that _either, can I?"

"What're you getting at?"

"Don't you see, Narukami-kuun? _You're _my castle. And Chie's my prince… But it seems that my prince will never come, will never see me the way I am, and I'll never have a castle all to myself… That's why I might as well just end it all right now…!"

I try to respond but I'm suddenly interrupted. "…That's enough…I'm not that weak…Not anymore…!" Yukiko finally cries out, her voice raspy and hoarse. "…You're nothing like me… That's the truth!"

The Shadow laughs. "You see? I'm always right… She doesn't _want _to accept me, so she never _will_!"

And so the Shadow takes on the dark haze and just like all the others it promptly transforms into another beast –

It was a massive bird with Yukiko's head in place of its own – but on top of that it was a bird trapped in a cage. I couldn't think of a design any more corny than this, but that was perhaps the whole purpose of this Shadow – to display the truth in as brutally obvious a way as possible for all to see.

"I am a Shadow, the true self…" The Shadow murmurs entirely out of character. "Try as hard as you might, my castle… I have no weaknesses."

We would certainly see about that –

I make my first strike with Izanagi at the ready – his first strike is fierce enough that it even manages to dent the cage, while my feeble attempt to strike at her as the cage descends to lunge at me barely does a thing – using her face as a beak the Shadow rams into me with an absurd amount of force while repelling Izanagi with a sudden burst of flame that only seems to burn at him, rather than set him on fire –

I move in again, this time muttering an incantation to physically protect myself from damage – Izanagi presses a paper slip against my back that shields me from the bulk of the Shadow's second strike and I manage to open a massive gash along the side of her neck. The Shadow howls in pain before sending a well timed fireball in my direction that Izanagi only barely manages to block – but immediately follows up by shifting her weight as far back as possible and swinging her cage right into me with a tremendous amount of force.

I'm sent flying backward – even with my protective spell I'd been hit far too hard. I manage to stand myself up, but as I do Izanagi is sent spiraling straight into me –

I manage to get myself out of the way to avoid being hit, but the moment I get my bearings the Shadow is once again hurtling straight towards me in that cage. I get out of the way for the most part – my sword arm is caught between the cage and the wall and for all intents and purposes is crushed.

I release my sword and as the Shadow backs away my arm limply falls to my side. I can move it, but only somewhat – it hurts too much to do anything productive with it, and I try my hardest not to look directly at it, as the sickening crunch I'd heard a matter of moments ago told me everything I needed to know –

And so I employ the old fashioned Joestar Family Strategy. I run.

I move out of the way of the next attack as I'm no longer even attempting to fight back. Izanagi manages to close in on her and passes a bolt of lightning through her cage, but upon taking that hit she arbitrarily begins to scream.

In a matter of moments a small Shadow materializes before her – it's an extremely short metallic looking thing wearing regal European clothes and based on the tacky hairdo and the rapier it held in one of its hands I could only assume it was masquerading as a European prince.

In a matter of moments it heads straight towards me, aimed to hunt me down –

The small prince manages to get a solid hit in when I stumble slightly on my path away from it – I manage to kick its head hard enough to knock it over, but the cut was certainly deep. The amount of strength this thing possessed was completely absurd for its size – I was fortunate that it was about as slow as molasses. Otherwise it probably would've been completely screwed over. I manage to outrun it long enough for Yukiko's Shadow to realize that its plan didn't work –

And then it shouts. "_Enough!_"

And with a massive roar it shoots a tiny ball of fire from its mouth –

And the moment it collides with the floor it explodes, the force probably equating to that of several bombs going off all at once. Izanagi was only a foot or two away from her – he's caught in the blast and likely doesn't survive it as is the small prince, while the recoil sends me flying across the room and straight towards one of the stained glass windows –

There was no way –

In one shot, with one attack, it was all over…?!

And before I can even realize what's about to happen the glass behind me shatters as I fly straight out the window – I get one final glimpse of Yukiko's ailing form as gravity takes hold of me and I begin to fall –

And I can see the ground, so many feet below me, slowly getting closer and closer as my descent speeds up –

And –

…

…

…

…

…

…

And I find myself staring up at that red and black vortex that served as the sky in this twisted world.

…

What happened? I was falling, but suddenly –

Suddenly everything just cut out. Like my brain stopped recording what I was seeing like a videotape that had run out of space.

There's clearly something firm beneath me – but aside from that I can't feel anything. I can't feel my arms, my legs – everything is completely numb. I fear trying to move – the moment I knew for certain what state my body was in was the moment I could potentially go into shock. And then it would all be over.

But either way, whether my life ends here or not, I lost.

I couldn't stop her. Izanagi wasn't strong enough. The moment she had set off that bomb it was all over. I stood no chance. Izanagi alone wouldn't be good enough – but more importantly I doubted that Yosuke or Chie would do much good against that move either –

She was playing me right into her hands. She was always capable of that tremendous amount of power and had just led me along –

What was she trying to tell me? She wasn't just toying with me. She hadn't used her full strength right from the start. There had to be some meaning to that.

But –

Did it even matter? It was all over. I wasn't going to get a second chance. And now that Yukiko had seen me fail with her own eyes she would be backed into that corner once again and it was probably only a matter of minutes before she put an end to everything herself.

So what was the point?

Honestly it didn't even matter to me if I made it out alive.

For the first time in years I'd given myself a purpose. To save the people who were trapped in this world. To save people that were being unjustly tortured for a crime that we're all guilty of. But I'd failed so miserably on my first attempt.

I've just got too much bigotry in my system. I've become too cynical and too jaded by the shit society's put me through to ever be anything more. I'm just someone who complains – I can't put anything into action. And this just proves it.

Of course I'm not allowed to admit to that.

No, that would be too easy. I can't leave things off like that. Because I'm obligated to some higher power not to.

Fuck it. Fuck all of it. If I can't save one person then I might as well just pull the plug right now. Because without this – I don't have a damn thing, do I?

And of course –

The moment I admit that, I notice the figure hunched over on the ground next to me, peering down at me –

And I manage to move my head enough to see them – it's that girl from the train station. The one with the weird clothes that she was still dressed in. The only real difference, aside from the massive book she held in her hands, was the rather concerned look on her face. What she was doing here… Fuck it, I don't need to be questioning any of this shit. If it happens, it happens, and I just have to accept it. There's no point in mulling shit over this late in the game, after all.

She finally realizes that I'm staring at her and suddenly fidgets.

"…Are you alright?" She asks, not really looking directly at me.

"…I'd imagine you can probably figure that out for yourself." I groan, my voice barely coming out of my mouth.

She doesn't seem to want to look directly at me at all. I could only imagine how broken my bones were. "…Right, I guess." She replies while clearly trying to hold something back. She likely didn't want to freak out over how banged up I was for my sake – it would seem that she was at least a little considerate. Wasn't a bad thing, I suppose.

"…Who are you?"

She finally looks into my eyes, and after several seconds of silence she replies.

"…Marie. I'm Marie. And… I want to help you."

And from that moment –

From that moment came something strange –

A feeling I wasn't quite familiar with.

…No, it wasn't love. I'm not some dewy-eyed school girl, you know.

But there was something about the simplicity of her words and the sincerity of them –

That made me feel as though I'd found a light in the darkness.

And so it begins again –


End file.
